CfP: State of Emergency: Architecture, Urbanism, and World War One, SAH, Providence, 2019

72nd Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians
April 24-28, 2019 / Providence, Rhode Island

CFP: State of Emergency: Architecture, Urbanism, and World War One
Session Chairs: Erin Sassin, Middlebury College, and Sophie Hochhäusl, Harvard University

“Far greater than the infamy of war is that of men who want to forget that it ever took place, although they exulted in it at the time,” wrote Austrian journalist Karl Kraus in The Last Days of Mankind, revealing humanity’s abyss on the eve of World War I. With the centennial of the conclusion of the First World War approaching, we seek to reassess what this cataclysmic global conflict meant for architecture and urbanism from a human, social, and economic perspective.

Histories of design have often emphasized wartime advances in mechanization and standardization that opened new fields of inquiry in the aftermath of WWI and blurred the meaning of what constituted architecture. Yet, the war also prompted the rapid development of military-architectural knowledge impacting civilian populations at great human cost. As mechanized trench warfare came to the brink of collapse, hyper-development was accompanied by the re-emergence of systems of underdevelopment, including barter and subsistence economies, as well as mobile kitchens, field railways, and do-it-yourself objects made in the state of emergency.

In this session, we seek to imbed the formation of architectural networks and institutions (such as the Glass Chain or Vkhutemas) in broader histories of wartime architectural production advanced by governments, institutions, organizations, or citizens in order to interrogate the complex and often violent relationship between front and home front. We particularly welcome papers that address regions impacted by WWI beyond Western Europe analyzing how architectural agents and institutions mitigated, exacerbated, or actively resisted complicity in this human tragedy. We seek contributions that consider the impact of the ephemeral and the creation of makeshift architecture by women and children in the transformation of wartime urbanism. Finally, we encourage projects that engage economic theories of the war and relate them to post-war debates on cooperation, socialization, and democracy.

The 72nd Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians will take place on April 24-28, 2019 in Providence, Rhode Island. Submission of abstracts begins on April 3, 2018. Applicants will submit a 300-word abstract and CV through the online portal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Please do not send these materials directly to the panel co-chairs. Submission of proposals to the SAH online portal closes at 11:59 on June 5, 2018.

CfP: Architecture, the Built Environment, and the Aftermath of the First World War

Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) Annual Symposium
9 June 2018, The Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London

The SAHGB Annual Symposium, open to scholars at all career stages and of all periods and disciplines, will examine the aftermath and legacy of the Great War in relation to architectural history. The Society is grateful for the support of the 20s30s Network, a trans- disciplinary network of scholars rethinking British interwar history.

The Symposium will consider how the War directly impacted architectural design and discourse, as well as what role designers and practitioners played in shaping the post-war period. In doing so, the Symposium will provide an opportunity for architectural historians to demonstrate how methodologically the built environment, broadly conceived, can be placed in, and contribute to, wider urban, cultural, social and political histories of the period.

Proposals comprising a 300-word abstract for papers of 15 minutes should be sent to the Symposium Convenor, Neal Shasore (symposium2018@sahgb.org.uk) by 10am, Monday 30 October 2017. Notices of acceptance or rejection will be sent out as soon as possible thereafter.

Full details here.
CfP poster: SAHGBAnnualSymposium2018CfP