CfP: The Multiplicity of Exits from the War: the Experience of the Eastern Front Cities

National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Kyiv, Ukraine); Center for Urban History (Lviv, Ukraine)
August 28-30, 2018: 3 days (2 conference days and 1 study tour day)

Organizers:
Center for Urban History (Lviv, Ukraine);
History department, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Kyiv, Ukraine);
University of Victoria (Victoria, Canada)

Deadlines:
*Extended deadline: April 1, 2018 for proposals*
July 16, 2018 for pre-circulated papers

Contact:
conferences@lvivcenter.org

The International Conference entitled “The Multiplicity of Exits from the War: the Experience of the Eastern Front Cities” is the second of the events dedicated to studying the urban experience of the Great War in the areas where the Eastern Front ran from the Baltic to the Caucasus. The first event, an international seminar “The City Experience of the Great War in Eastern Europe”, took place on June 23-25, 2016 at the Center for Urban History of the Central Eastern Europe in Lviv.

The purpose of our conference is to focus on the period of the end of the Great War, which on the Eastern Front was accompanied by revolutions, formation of national states, civilian wars, and armed conflicts for disputed territories. Chronologically, it covers the years 1917-1923: from the February Revolution in the Russian Empire to the final determination of borders in post-war Eastern Europe. Consequently, this era was a period of transformation when new political practices were introduced in conditions of general social and economic instability, violence and impunity, demobilization and new mobilization. At the same time, these years can be considered as an approbation period of practices which will eventually become dominant in the totalitarian states of the USSR and the Third Reich: controlling people through the introduction of cards and the differentiation of society by ethnic/class/political criteria.

Participants:
This will be an international and pre-circulated papers conference with open call and invited keynote speakers. We expect to host 20-25 participants from Ukraine and abroad. We also invite keynote speakers, who will deliver lectures and address the most acute aspects of subjects discussed during the conference. Our aim is to bring together distinguished scholars and researchers from a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to history, anthropology, geography, peace and conflict studies, literature, performing arts, media studies and related disciplines. Advanced PhD students and young researchers from Eastern Europe are especially encouraged to apply and contribute. The working language of the workshop is English.

How to apply:
In order to take part in the conference one has to submit her/his abstract (up to 500 words); short bio (up to 150 words); contact information by April 1, 2018. Successful applicants will be notified by April 15, 2018. They will have to send a short version of presentation (up to 5,000 words) by July 16, 2018. All the papers will be sent to discussants for reviews in advance. Each panel will consist of no more than 4 presenters, moderator and a discussant. Time-limit for a presentation is no longer than 20 minutes.

Program Costs
The organizers will cover accommodation, meals, and excursions within the program. There is limited funding for travel. Therefore we ask you to indicate if you need financial support, and when possible, to inquire about additional conference funding from your home institutions.

Full details of the CfP here.

Event: The First World War and the Americas: from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego

The National Archives is hosting a conference on the Americas, which will address the impact of the conflict across the length and breadth of the two continents.

Speakers will discuss the conflict experiences of those living far from the battlefield, including war enthusiasm, loss and the longer term impact on memory and national identity. They will also consider some of the other ways in which the conflict affected the Americas, notably through trade and economic development. In doing so the event will explore some of the war’s untold stories far away from the Western Front and highlight why it was a truly global conflict.

PROGRAMME
Sat 1 July 2017, 09:30 – 17:00
The National Archives
Bessant Drive
Richmond
TW9 4DU

9:30 Registration, tea and coffee

9:45 Introduction

10:00 Keynote lecture
Prof Ian Beckett, University of Kent
‘1917: Year of Decision’

11:00 Break

11:15 Session 1: ‘Associated Powers’
Dr Sam Edwards, Manchester Metropolitan University
‘The Great War and the Great Republic: the American Experience of the First World War’

Dr Rory Miller, University of Liverpool
‘War, Business and Uncertainty in South America: A Bumpy Ride on the Periphery’

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Session 2: ‘Empire’
Dr Bonnie J. White, Memorial University of Newfoundland
‘‘Sorrow, Gratitude, and Pride’: Newfoundland’s Cultural Memory of the Great War’

Dr Kent Fedorowich, UWE Bristol
‘‘The True North Strong and Free’? Canada’s War at Home, 1914-1919’

Dr Richard Smith, Goldsmiths, University of London
‘‘That our national and allied hopes be speedily realized’: West Indian war experiences and aspirations during 1917′

15:00 Break

15:30 Round Table

16:00 Wine Reception

Cost: £24-£30. Purchase tickets here.

Talk: Greece’s Megali Idea during and after the First World War

Public Lecture with speaker Dr Marius Turda, Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Oxford Brookes University
Glass Tank, Abercrombie, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane site
Tuesday, 06 December 2016, 16:00 to 17:30

In 1844, the Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Kolettis (1774-1847), described Greece as a country that included ‘any land associated with Greek history or the Greek race’. This was the first announcement of the ‘Megali Idea’ (‘big idea’), a political philosophy that dominated Greek nationalist debates until 1920. The ‘Megali Idea’ was seen as the only symbol capable of uniting the two centres of Hellenism: Athens and Constantinople (Istanbul). If the War of Independence (1821-1829) succeeded in establishing the former, it was left to the new generation of nationalists, who matured around the end of the nineteenth century, to acquire the latter: “the great capital, the City, the dream and hope of Greeks.” These two centres of Hellenism played a conjoining role in shaping the ethos of Greek irredentist rhetoric during the Balkan and the First World Wars. As I will show in my talk, irredentist nationalists repeatedly argued that Greek culture and civilization could develop naturally only within the historical framework based on the intersection of these two points of national legitimization. As a result, irredentism reclaimed both the classical and the Byzantine traditions as constituent elements of a modern Greek national identity.

This seminar is organized in collaboration with The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum and the Centre for Medical Humanities.

More information here and how to book:
Email: tgeorgescu@brookes.ac.uk