CfP: No End to the War: Cultures of Violence and Care in the aftermath of the First World War

Thursday 24-Friday 25 January, 2019, The University of Manchester

Organisers:
The Centre for the Cultural History of War, The University of Manchester
War, Conflict and Society Research Group, Manchester Metropolitan University
Legacies of War Project, University of Leeds

Confirmed Speakers:
Prof. John Horne (TCD, Emeritus)
Prof. Robert Gerwarth (UCD)
Prof. Alison Fell (Leeds)

Europe’s post-war transition of 1918/1919 has received new scholarly attention in light of the First World War centenary. There has been a recent attempt to contextualise this transition, and to understand how the period after 1918 witnessed both continuing traces of violence and a renewed focus on caregiving. Particularly relevant are the ways in which, across Europe, the war gave rise not only to paramilitary violence, civil unrest, and military occupation, but also new cultures of humanitarianism. This conference aims to act as an intellectual and public intervention in the discussions of 2018 and 2019, and engage with key issues in the cultural history of the transition from war to peace.

This conference seeks to stimulate dialogue between historians of post-war violence, occupation, caregiving and humanitarianism, and contribute to a new integrated history of the aftermath of the First World War. We invite papers on any nation or region, and particularly encourage comparative and transnational approaches.

Major topics of discussion will include:
• Paramilitaries and Paramilitary Violence
• Post-War Military Occupations and Transfers of Occupation
• Demobilisation and Demilitarisation
• Post-War Incarceration
• POW Returns
• Forced Displacement
• Humanitarianism
• Nursing and Medicine
• Cultural Representations of Violence and Care

Within these parameters, the conference seeks to range broadly over the interrelationship of violence and care in the aftermath of the First World War, but potential questions include:
• What new humanitarian cultures and practices did the ‘wars after the war’ provoke? What pre-war ideas and practices persisted?
• How instrumental were ex-servicemen in spreading cultures of care and violence after 1918?
• In what ways did post-war paramilitarism and humanitarianism intersect?
• How successfully were returning POWs cared for and rehabilitated?
• How violent were the Allied occupations of Germany and the Ottoman Empire after 1918?
• In what ways did the injured and disabled challenge social reintegration?
• The family as site of care and violence: what new challenges did families face after 1918?
• How significant was local activism in shaping transnational networks?
• What insights can we gain from examining the role of individuals as agents of humanitarianism?
• How did the creative arts and languages serve populations coming to terms with survival, loss and continued violence?
• How were images of human suffering mobilised by humanitarian activists?
• Which victims of war or agents of humanitarianism are remembered (and forgotten)? Why were some voices weakened or silenced?
• How have museums and practitioners in the field of cultural heritage curated and communicated the complexities of violence and care in the wake of war to public audiences?

Papers should be 20 minutes in length, and submissions from post-graduate and postdoctoral scholars are particularly encouraged. Please send a 300 word abstract and 1 page CV to NoEndToWar@gmail.com by 18 May, 2018.

CfP: Care After the First World War, University of Leeds

9-11 April 2018, University of Leeds

The end of the First World War saw the demobilisation and return to civilian life of millions of service personnel around the world. Governments, charities, families and individuals attempted to support, rehabilitate and reintegrate those who had served through financial provision, medical treatment and social care. In the final year of the centenary commemorations, this conference looks beyond the war to the lifelong impact of war service.

This conference examines that provision of care to veterans of the First World War and their families. It asks how, where and when care, in its various forms, was provided to and withheld from veterans around the world. It seeks to understand the motivations of those individuals and groups who provided care and to analyse the development of formal and informal networks of care.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Michael Roper and Dr Fiona Reid will be keynote speakers.

Papers discussing care for veterans of any nation after the First World War are welcome and comparative, transnational and entangled histories of care are particularly encouraged. Panel proposals are also welcome and researchers at all career stages are invited to submit a proposal.

Potential subjects for papers and panels include:

Systems of soldier preference (in employment, soldier settlement schemes etc.)
Disability pensions and financial provisions
The development and work of veterans’ organisations and charities
Competition and cooperation between care providers
Caring for the carers: post-war provisions for medical-military personnel
Family reintegration and care within the home
Effects of insufficient care
Care for prisoners of war, the families of veterans and the bereaved
Rehabilitation of disabled veterans
Institutional and in-patient care
Ongoing treatment of disease and physical and psychological wounds
Care as a disciplinary tool
Gender in the giving and receiving of care
The accessibility of care: issues of race, class, gender, empire and distance
Commemoration as an act of care: remembering the disabled soldier
Representations of care and carers in literature and the arts

The conference will include a mentoring scheme within the programme. This will involve postgraduate and early career researchers submitting an expanded draft of their paper (6000 words max.) by 15 March 2018 that will then be pre-circulated to their designated mentor. The mentor will commit to attending the mentee’s paper and then meet with the mentee to provide feedback on developing the paper for publication. Postgraduate and early career researchers will automatically be considered for the scheme. Those returning to academia from a career break and those without institutional support but who no longer qualify as early career researchers are invited to submit an expression of interest should they wish to participate. We also invite established researchers who are willing to act as mentors to contact the organisers.

Following the conference, participants will be invited to submit articles for an edited collection.

Presenters will deliver twenty-minute papers followed by time for questions. Abstracts of up to 300 words, accompanied by a short biography, and expressions of interest in the mentoring scheme should be sent to Alexia Moncrieff (University of Leeds) and Michael Robinson (University of Liverpool) at CareConference@leeds.ac.uk by 15 November 2017.

General enquiries can be sent to CareConference@leeds.ac.uk
Conference website here.