Category Archives: First World War

Lecture: “Shell Shock: Understanding Psychological Casualties from the Battlefield”, 25 October, 18.00

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The McGovern Lecture 2017, Green Templeton College
6pm, Wednesday 25 October 2017

Professor Edgar Jones
Professor in the History of Medicine and Psychiatry, King’s College London

The scale of the First World War, and in particular the high numbers of killed and wounded, marked the conflict as one of the most significant events of the twentieth century. For the first time, psychiatric casualties were not only a medical priority but also presented as a military crisis. In a protracted war of attrition, shell shock had the capacity to erode morale and undermine the fighting strength of the major combatants. Some senior physicians, such as Gordon Holmes, interpreted shell shock in the absence of a head wound as little more than cowardice, whilst others, including Charles Myers and Frederick Mott, explored ideas of psychological vulnerability and sought to correlate its symptoms with traumatic exposure. Clinical presentations differed between armies. In the UK, shell shock was commonly represented as a movement disorder, characterised by tremor and unusual gaits. This stood in contrast to Germany and Italy where seizures and dissociated, soldier-like actions were more commonly reported. Possible explanations for these national differences will be discussed in the context of combat medical services.

E P Abraham Lecture Theatre
Green Templeton College
43 Woodstock Road
Oxford
Oxon
OX2 6HG
United Kingdom

More information here.

All are welcome, but booking is essential. Book your seat now!

Registration open: Cultures and Commemorations of War: An Interdisciplinary Seminar Series

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Workshop One: Why Remember? War and Memory Today

Friday 10 November, 10am – 5.30pm
Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford
Funded by a British Academy Rising Stars Engagement Award

This interdisciplinary seminar series ‘Cultures and Commemorations of War’ brings together early career researchers and advanced scholars working on the memory of war in a range of disciplines with practitioners, policy makers, charities, and representatives from the media and culture and heritage industries. Through a series of three one-day workshops held in Oxford and London in 2017-18, this series aims to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue about the history and nature of war commemoration across time and its cultural, social, psychological and political iterations.

This first workshop seeks to assess the current field of war and memory studies and consider the impact of recent centenary commemorations, such as the ongoing First World War commemorations and the removal of confederate statues across the US. The morning workshop is led by ECRs and will include discussion of readings circulated two weeks before the event. It is open to everyone.

Registration is free and open to all! Please register here: bit.ly/2ihZd02

Any questions, please email: alice.kelly@rai.ox.ac.uk

10am: Coffee and Registration
10.30-12.30pm: Workshop led by ECRs – Kevin Waite, James Wallis, Emma Login, Alice Kelly
12.30-1.30pm: Lunch
1.30-1.45pm: Opening Remarks for Afternoon Session – Alice Kelly
1.45-3pm: Panel: The Materiality of Remembrance – Jennifer Iles & Layla Renshaw, chaired by Hanna Smyth
3-3.30pm: Coffee
3.30-4.30pm: Keynote – David Rieff, in conversation with Alice Kelly
4.30-5.30pm: Closing Roundtable – Elleke Boehmer, David Rieff, Adrian Gregory, Sara Haslam
5.30pm: Drinks, followed by dinner in college

Vacancy: Part-time Research Coordinator – ‘Lest We Forget’, Oxford

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Faculty of English Language and Literature, Oxford
Grade 5: £24,565 p.a. (pro rata)
Vacancy ID: 131367

The Faculty of English Language and Literature seeks to appoint a research co-ordinator for the ‘Lest We Forget’ project. The project sets out to crowd-source content from the public related to the First World War collecting the material for free reuse online. This will be a national project co-ordinating local digital collection days across the country run by volunteers in which members of the local community will bring in material they own related to the war for digitisation.

The postholder will work primarily on co-ordinating the project activities, liaising with volunteers, and keeping the project plan. The successful candidate will possess excellent organisational skills, have experience in social media and online communications, and some experience of project delivery. It is particularly suitable for someone interested in working with project management and outreach and/or interested in WW1.

Since this is a part-time post (0.2FTE – 7.25 hours per week), it is recognised that there will be a need to prioritise different areas at different times, and the precise allocation of duties and hours will be decided in consultation with the Project Director.

Applications for this vacancy are to be made online. You will be required to upload a supporting statement as part of your online application.

The closing date for applications is 12.00 midday on 18 October 2017.

CfP: A Holiday from War? “Resting” behind the lines during the First World War

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Université Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle
June 22 & 23, 2018
Maison de la Recherche

Organised by Sarah Montin (EA PRISMES) et Clémentine Tholas-Disset (EA CREW)
Confirmed Keynote Speaker: Tim Kendall (University of Exeter)

What do the soldiers do when they are not on the battlefield? The broadening of the definition of war experience in recent historiography has transformed our spatial and temporal understanding of the conflict, shifting the scope away from the front lines and the activities of combat. Beyond the battlefield and its traditional martial associations emerges another representation of the warrior and the soldier, along with another experience of the war.

In order to further our understanding of the historical, political and aesthetic concerns of life at the rear, long considered a parenthesis in the experience of war, this interdisciplinary conference will address, but will not be limited to, the following themes:

The ideological, medical and administrative construction of the notion of “rest” in the First World War (as it applied to combatants but also auxiliary corps and personnel).
Paramilitary, recreational and artistic activities at the rear; the organisation of activities in particular leisure and entertainment, the role of the army and independent contractors (civilian organisations, etc.)
Sociability between soldiers (hierarchy, tensions, camaraderie); the rear area as meeting place with the other (between soldiers/auxiliary personnel, combatants, locals, men/women, foreign troops, etc.), site of passage, exploration, initiation or “return to the norm” (“rest huts” built to offer a “home away from home”), testimonies from inhabitants of the occupied zones
Articulations and dissonances between community life and time to oneself, collective experience and individual experience
The historic and artistic conceptualisation of the rear area, specific artistic and literary modes at the rear by contrast with writings at the front
Staging life at the rear: scenes of country-life, idyllic representations of non-combat as farniente or hellscapes, bathing parties or penitentiary universes, the figure of the soldier as dilettante, flâneur and solitary rambler, in the productions (memoirs, accounts, correspondence, novels, poetry, visual arts, etc.) of combatants and non-combatants;
Cultural, political and media (re)construction of the figure of the “soldier at rest” (war photography, postcards, songs, etc.); representations of the male and female body at rest, constructions of a new model of masculinity (sexuality and sport), and their place in war production

Full details here.

In order to foster dialogue between the Anglophone, Francophone and Germanophone areas of study, the conference will mainly focus on the Western Front. However proposals dealing with other fronts will be examined. Presentations will preferably be in English.

Please send a 250-word proposal and a short bio before November 20, 2017 to :
montin.sarah@gmail.com and clementine.tholas@univ-paris3.fr
Notification of decision: December 15th 2017

CfP: Global War, Global Connections, Global Moments, Zurich, 2018

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A century after the First World War, this conference wants to reflect on international relations and entanglements during the global conflict. The aim is to bring together an international group of scholars working on transnational and international fields and aspects of the war, such as diplomacy, rivalry between war partners, secret diplomacy or commemoration.

Core topics:
– International Relations
– Cooperation and Rivalry between War Partners
– Alliances
– Networks, NGOs, Red Cross, Transnational companies
– Visions of Post-War Future, Peace and Order
– Transition from War to Peace (Global War, Local Peace)
– Global War – Global Actors – Local Actors
– Commemoration (transnational)
– Revolutions, Ruptures and Turning Points
– Knowledge transfer, secret diplomacy and intelligence services

Confirmed keynote speakers are Prof. Dr. Maartje Abbenhuis (University of Auckland, New Zealand) and Prof. Dr. Fischer-Tiné (ETH Zurich, Switzerland).

Please send an abstract of 300 – 400 words until 10th November 2017 to the following email: global.war.conference@gmail.com.

Organized by Thomas Schmutz (University of Zurich/Newcastle) and Gwendal Piégais (Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest).

Programme
Part of the conference is also a workshop for PhD students and early career scholars.

CfP: Echoes of revolution 1848, 1918. Revolution, nationalism, and socialism

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Weekend conference: ‘Echoes of revolution 1848, 1918. Revolution, nationalism, and socialism’
Dates: Saturday and Sunday, 17 and 18 February 2018
Venue: School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

Organised and hosted by UEA School of History in conjunction with the journal Socialist History and the Institute of Working Class History, Chicago.

As the old European powers approached exhaustion in the Great War, a wave of revolutionary struggles broke out across the continent, from Ireland to Russia. Mass movements articulated class, social and national aspirations as states fragmented and empires, dynasties and rulers were toppled. But relations between these movements and their component parts were anything but simple. National claimants contested for control of disputed territories in the name of self-determination. Class and social movements struggled with one another over who should rule in the successor states, and in whose interests. These struggles left a lasting legacy which helped shape European politics for decades.

As a pivotal year in European history, 1918 begs comparison with other pivotal years, in particular 1848, in which many similar social and national aspirations came to the fore. This conference will look at and compare movements for radical social and political change of those revolutionary years. We are seeking papers of 5000 to 10000 words to be presented at the conference on any aspects of revolution, nationalism and socialism anywhere around the world during, around or across the years 1848 and 1918. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the journal Socialist History. Attendance at the conference will be free of charge, but we ask that anyone wishing to attend registers in advance.

Proposals for papers and any enquiries should be submitted to Francis King. E-mail: f.king@uea.ac.uk

Deadline for proposals for papers: 15 December 2017

CfP: The Paris Peace Conference and the Challenge of a New World Order, Paris, June 2019

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The Peace Conference held in Paris in the aftermath of the Great War remains among the most important yet also most controversial events in modern history. Although it is often considered to have made a second global war all but inevitable, it has also been praised for providing the basis for an enduring peace that was squandered recklessly by poor international leadership during the 1930s.

A major international conference will take place in Paris in June 2019 to commemorate the centenary of the 1919 Conference from a global perspective. The purpose of this event is to re-examine the history of the Peace Conference through a thematic focus on the different approaches to order in world politics in the aftermath of the First World War. A remarkably wide range of actors in Paris – from political leaders, soldiers and diplomats to colonial nationalist envoys and trade unionists, economists, women’s associations and ordinary citizens – produced a wide array of proposals for a future international and, indeed, global order. These proposals were often based on vastly different understandings of world politics. They went beyond the articulation of specific national security interests to make claims about the construction and maintenance of peace and the need for new norms and new institutions to achieve this aim. To what extent the treaties and their subsequent implementation represented a coherent world order remains a question of debate.

Full details here.

Paper proposals
The conference organisers aim to ensure the conference provides a global perspective on the Paris Peace Conference. We are therefore particularly keen to receive proposals from scholars working on topics pertaining to the non-western world.

The conference languages will be English and French
Regardless of language, all proposals will receive serious consideration.

The deadline for proposals is: 1 June 2018
Please send your proposal (abstract in English or French of no more than 500 words) and short CV to Axel Dröber: ADroeber@dhi-paris.fr.