‘Home Sweet Home: A Memorial’, with Australian artist Anna Taylor, Oxford Brookes, 20 August

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Monday 20 August 2018
12.30-1.30pm, John Henry Brookes Building, Oxford Brookes University

Free to attend – sign up here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/home-sweet-home-a-memorial-with-australian-artist-anna-taylor-tickets-48024754333

At this event, acclaimed Australian artist Anna Taylor will show and talk about her project ‘Home Sweet Home – a Memorial’. All are welcome, and the event is free to attend.

‘Home Sweet Home – a Memorial’ honours the living, the women and children who support their loved ones living with the after-effects of the war experience. The project has been created to pay tribute and raise awareness of the generations of families who have vicariously experienced the impact of war trauma.

Anna writes: ‘The need for a Memorial to women and children came to me in 1997, when I understood the generational impact of war in my own family. This impact has occurred in many family homes across our society, yet is perhaps only now being acknowledged.’

Find out more about Anna’s work and the event on the Eventbrite page or via her website: http://www.annataylorart.com

CfP: Guerrilla War and Insurgency: Lessons from History

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Guerrilla warfare is an ancient concept. Sun Tzu wrote on the subject in the Art of War. Likewise, insurgencies have existed as long as there have been powers to wage them against. Insurgencies often utilize guerrilla warfare as a successful strategy in facing off against larger, more advantaged adversaries. Beyond this, the irregular war of this kind has been an element of almost every conflict ever fought. In recent years the study of, misleadingly labeled, ‘small wars’ has undergone a renaissance as the reality of their predominance has regained recognition among militaries and academics around the world. Insurgencies are able to absorb massive amounts of resources whilst serving to destabilize entire regions; indeed, insurgency can, and does, kill empires. For this reason, the study of conflicts from this lens is critical to understanding and confronting the world around us as well as the security concerns it presents.

This purpose of this book is to present and examine various historical examples of this form of war. Valuable lessons can be gleaned from examining and understanding past conflicts of this kind. Each of these conflicts hold their own unique characteristics as well as broad common themes. The nature of guerrilla warfare as it relates to insurgency and the way these forces confront ‘conventional’ advisories can inform approaches to modern irregular, hybrid, and even ‘conventional’ wars. In an effort to understand the complexity of these conflicts alternative perspectives and underrepresented examples will be introduced. By looking at these historical lessons our understanding can be considerably altered.

This book will compile a collection of chapters dealing with various and often overlooked historical examples of guerrilla insurgency. These chapters will present their unique qualities as well as common themes. Chapter subjects can focus on any aspect of their historical example and authors may approach the subject from whatever lens they feel appropriate. Authors are also free to emphasize, through their retelling of events, whatever particular themes, major policies, or particular policy / strategy disputes they feel to be of significance.

To give an example, the primary editor will be contributing a chapter examine the Yugoslavia revolt in the Second World War as a war of resistance, civil war, and revolution within the context of a larger conventional war.

Proposals for chapters dealing with historical examples that involve significant guerrilla theorists, for example, T.E Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, or Mao Zedong and the Chinese Revolution, would be most welcome. More significantly, underrepresented historical examples from antiquity and the modern period would be particularly well received. Authors dealing with the naval dimensions of insurgency/ Counter-insurgency and guerrilla warfare would be particularly welcomed.

Deadline for the chapter proposals: 31 October 2018

The Editor has existing relationships with several publishers who will be approached once the chapters have been assigned.

Please send a 300-word chapter proposal and a 150-word bio to christopher.murray@kcl.ac.uk

CfP: Post-War Transitions in Europe: Politics, States and Veterans (1918-1923)

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Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin
28-30 March 2019

The Centre for War Studies of University College Dublin is pleased to host an international conference to commemorate the end of the centenary of the First World War. The conference aims to appraise how European WWI ex-service men and officers contributed to the creation of new states in Europe and participated through associative or political activism to the peace process.

Main themes
Papers will broadly deal with the following themes:
-WWI ex-service men and transnational networks in Europe
-WWI ex-service men and the peace process
-WWI ex-service men and politics
-WWI ex-servicemen and paramilitary violence in Europe
-WWI ex-service men and the creation of nation states throughout Europe

As we approach the end of the centenary of the First World War, the organisers invite a widespread multi-disciplinary response. In particular, they welcome proposals offering a transnational approach to the study of the demobilization of European armies. The conference organizer intends to organise a round-table around the work of George Mosse Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (1990). Historians, contributors to the conference, and the audience will debate whether the concept of “brutalisation” still has relevance.

The conference language will be English

Please send your proposal (title and abstract in English, French or German of no more than 500 words) and short CV to the conference organiser Emmanuel DESTENAY: emmanuel.destenay@ucd.ie. The deadline for paper proposals is October 1st 2018.

Download full CfP: CALL FOR PAPER

An Evening with Rudyard Kipling – Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock

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A talk by Philip Geddes

Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Park Street, Woodstock OX20 1SN
Wednesday 11th July 2018
6.45pm – Doors Open & Refreshments Available
7pm – 8.30pm Lecture
Tickets: £10

“What comfort can I find ?” was the anguished question asked by the writer Rudyard Kipling after the death of his only son Jack at the Battle of Loos in the autumn of 1915. Kipling provided his own brutally realistic answer – “none this tide, nor any tide”. Kipling responded to his loss by becoming the unofficial voice of the people of Britain and its Empire. He wrote many of the words by which we now remember the dead of the Great War – striking phrases such as “Lest we forget” and “A Soldier of the Great War Known unto God.”

An Evening with Rudyard Kipling tells the story of Kipling’s life with readings from his poetry and prose. It takes Kipling from his early days as the chronicler of Britain’s Indian Raj, through to his high point as poet of Empire for Edwardian England and as voice of the nation in the First World War. The show includes many Kipling favourites – “If”, regularly voted Britain’s favourite poem, and extracts from Plain Tales from the Hills and the Just So stories.

About Philip Geddes
Philip Geddes is ‘a child of the Empire’ and a long standing Kipling fan. His family served in India for almost 200 years in the army and as political officers. He was a journalist for 30 years with the BBC, ITV and The Financial Times (as European Editor for Financial Times Television). He then spent 15 years as a consultant to European Commission, advising senior level officials on the development and presentation of policy. He has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, and is author of two books – In the Mouth of the Dragon, on the future of Hong Kong and Inside The Bank of England, the first modern study of the Bank of England.

For further information and to book, see here.

Workshop: Writing the First World War

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The Quick and the Dead: Fallen Soldiers and their Families

Saturday, 22 September 2018, 10:00 to 17:00
John Henry Brookes Building, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane site

This interactive day will draw on the extensive experience of bestselling author and well-known historian of the Great War, Richard van Emden.

It will cover many aspects of non-fiction writing from clarifying what sort of book you want to write, how to build a narrative and getting published. It’s suitable for anyone, published or aspiring, who’s writing or wanting to write about the First World War.

Also taking part will be Stephen Barker, author of Lancashire’s Forgotten Heroes.

Cost: £65 (including tea/coffee and lunch) or £60 for Western Front Association members.

For more information contact: hss-shortcourses@brookes.ac.uk
Further information and how to book, see here.

Conference: Colonial and Wartime Migration, 1815-1918

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13 and 14 September 2018
Université de Picardie Jules Verne
Amiens, Logis du Roy
CORPUS (EA 4295)
https://colonialandwartimemigration18151918.wordpress.com/

Wednesday 12 September
Reception at Amiens City Hall at 6:30pm

Thursday 13 September (Logis du Roy)

9:00-9:15: Introduction: Marie Ruiz

9:15-10:15: Keynote Address
Eric Richards (Flinders University, Australia) – “Migration at Extremes”

10:15-10:45: Discussion

10:45-11:00: Coffee break

11:00-12:00: Panel 1: Exceptional Migration Patterns (Chair: Laura Sims)
Bernard Porter (Newcastle University, UK) – “British colonial migration in the 19th century. The Short Route”
James Hammerton (LaTrobe University, Australia) – “’Empire made me?’: English lower middle-class migrants and expatriates, 1860-1930.”

12:00-12:30: Discussion

12:30-1:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm-2:30pm: Panel 2: Scottish Migration (Chair: Yann Béliard)
John MacKenzie (Lancaster University, UK) – “Early nineteenth century war and the distinctive Scottish Diaspora”
Marjory Harper (University of Aberdeen, UK) – “”The hands of the clock have begun to move backwards”: postwar emigration from Scotland”

2:30–3:00pm: Discussion

3:00–4:00pm: Panel 3: Ireland, the Great War and New Zealand (Chair: Marianne Kac-Vergne)
David Fitzpatrick (Trinity College, Ireland) – “Irish Migration and the Great War”
Jim McAloon (Victoria University, New Zealand) – “Irish immigrants and the middle class in colonial New Zealand 1890-1910”

4:00–4:30pm: Discussion

Friday 14 September (Logis du Roy)

9:30-10:30: Panel 4: Labour Migration (Chair: Géraldine Vaughan)
Fabrice Bensimon (Université Paris-Sorbonne) – “British Labour and Migration to Europe during Industrialisation (1815-1860). The Case of the Lace Makers”
Yann Beliard (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) – “Migration to and from Hull, and its impact on the labour movement, 1840s-1914”

10:30-11:00: Discussion

11:00-11:30: Coffee break

11:30-12:30: Panel 5: Religious Migration (Chair: Aurélie Thiria)
Hillary Carey (University of Bristol, UK) – “Clergy for Convicts: Religion, Emigration and the Convict Probation System in New South Wales”
Géraldine Vaughan (université de Rouen – IUF) – “‘Promote Protestant emigration!’: John Dunmore Lang, Religious Immigration and Imperial Identities in the Mid-Victorian era”

12:30-1:00pm: Discussion

1:00-2:30pm: Lunch

2:30-3:30pm: Panel 6: The Empire and WWI: Canadians and Kiwis (Chair: Frédérique Spill)
Kent Fedorowich (University of the West of England, UK) – “The ‘Sawdust Fusiliers’: The Canadian Forestry Corps, 1916-1919”
Adam Cutforth (France-New Zealand Association) – “‘There and back again’: an ANZAC’s round-trip to the Western Front”

3:30-4:00pm: Discussion

4:00-4:15pm: Coffee break

4:15–5:15pm: Panel 7: Migrant Representations of WWI (Chair: Nathalie Saudo-Welby)
Edward Higgs (University of Essex, UK) – “Spirit photography as war photography, and migration across the Great Divide”
Santanu Das (King’s College London, UK) – “South Asian Troops in Europe, 1914-1918 – Image, Song, Literature”

5:15-5:45pm: Discussion

5:45pm: End of Conference

CfP: War and Illness: Experiences and Patterns of Cultural Interpretation from Antiquity to the Present

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Location: Aachen
Date: Thursday, 26 September–Saturday, 28 September 2019

Oganized by Arbeitskreis Militärgeschichte e.V. in cooperation with the Institute for the History, Theory, and Ethics of Medicine at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen

Oganizing committee: Gundula Gahlen (FU Berlin) / Dominik Groß (RWTH Aachen) / Ulrike Ludwig (GU Frankfurt am Main) / Mathias Schmidt (RWTH Aachen) / Jens Westemeier (RWTH Aachen

War brings not only death, but also illness. The experience of battle and the confrontation with violence, death, and injury take a heavy physical and psychological toll. Hunger and epidemic are conflict’s constant companions. Yet the illnesses that follow from war have been subject to significant change. This is due not only to the continually changing nature of war, but also to culturally varying definitions of illness. Illnesses have never been purely bodily, anthropologically stable phenomena, but always conditioned by social and cultural values and contextualizations.

The link between war and illness has rarely been comparatively investigated across historical periods. This conference thus seeks to offer a forum for current research on the subject and to sound out its limits and possibilities. It considers all physical or psychological phenomena that were labeled or treated as illnesses, and that were believed to be connected to war, whether they were understood as ‘war illnesses’ in a strict sense (e.g., as the result of the experience of war, as in the case of shell shock or war wounds) or as common concomitants of war (e.g. epidemics). We hope, in the course of multi- and interdisciplinary discussions, to tease out continuities, ruptures, and shifts in this history, as well as to develop new perspectives on the connection between war and illness.

In order to focus and structure the discussion, we ask for contributions in the following three thematic areas:

1. Concepts and frames, limits and possibilities of communication about war and illness across time. Rather than attempt to retroactively diagnose, we wish to illuminate and compare culturally and historically determined conditions of illness and the language used to describe them. Which cultural codes, symbolic transformations, mental-historical foundations, and discursive contexts can be identified? How and in what contexts were the sensations, symptoms, and behaviors of illness described, interpreted, and re-interpreted? What were the limits of public utterances on and demonstrations of illness? When and how did these limits change, and why? How does the language around illness differ across historical and cultural contexts?

2. The significance of illness to the (military and civilian) participants of war. How did the fear or endurance of illness influence the expectations, experience, and memory of war? When did fear cripple or disrupt the readiness for war? What forms of self- and professional help were employed to protect participants either before or during the war, or to restore their health afterwards? How was the suffering and treatment of illness experienced and remembered? In this context, the question of the long-term effects of war illnesses is also interesting. Papers investigating the role of illness in individual and collective memories of war would be welcome, as would papers analyzing societal approaches to people who suffered from chronic illnesses ‘acquired’ during war.

3. Connections between illness and injury, salvation and healing. This includes considerations of medical care in the military, but also magical or religious methods of healing. How did sanitary conditions and military hospitals develop, and what was their relationship to alternative medicines? What impact did war have as a ‘medical laboratory’ on the development of medicine and the position of doctors? And what self-image and reputation did healers, doctors, caregivers, and other medical professionals – who served both as ‘saviors’ and as instruments of war – cultivate?

We welcome papers on a variety of eras with a military and/or medical-historical focus. In addition to empirical case studies, we also strongly encourage more theoretically oriented papers that demonstrate the potential of different methodological-theoretical approaches and concepts, or thematic comparative studies spanning multiple historical periods.

Please send proposals (up to one page) and biographical information (up to two pages) to Gundula Gahlen (gundula.gahlen@fu-berlin.de) by 31 July 2018.