Tag Archives: First World War

CfP: Borders and Beyond in the Middle East since 1914: Legacies, Changes, Continuities

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York St John University, York, UK
17-18 June 2016 (associated social and cultural events on 16th and 19th June)

Keynote Speakers include Priya Satia (Stanford University); more to be confirmed.

This international interdisciplinary conference will examine the effects of World War 1 and the post-war settlement in the Middle East, especially those which are still felt today e.g. state borders, migrations, secular and religious ideologies and movements, and struggles over power. The centenary of the 1916 “Sykes-Picot agreement”, which fed into the post-1918 politics of the region, provides a prompt to reflect on these themes, but does not limit the range of topics for discussion.

With its associated exhibitions and cultural events, the conference will provide a timely opportunity to re-examine the history of this period from many different perspectives and consider the extent of its consequences for the present, and implications for the future. It will also be an opportunity for scholarly work on the Middle East over the last century to be heard and discussed by a wider audience, and for participants to share non-academic as well as academic perspectives on past, present and future in the Middle East.

The conference will encourage the exploration of:
* issues such as gender politics, oil, imperialism, borders, mandates and state formation, local, national, and international elites, and local, national and communal histories of the region
* the impact of early twentieth century developments on subsequent histories and perceptions of ethnic, religious, social and communal diversity in the region
* cultural, political, and ideological aspects of these topics within and beyond the Middle East.
* histories and/or contemporary experiences of York/Yorkshire connections with the Middle East

Potential contributions to the conference may thus come from many disciplines; these might include geography, cartography, ethnography/anthropology, political science, war and peace studies, international relations, archaeology, science and/or engineering, religious and philosophical studies, the arts, cultural, media, and literary studies, statistics.

The conference will include both plenary sessions and panels. All sessions will be designed to give ample time to discuss presentations with a common theme. Proposals for papers or other forms of presentation are invited from all disciplines and areas. Selected papers will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume of conference proceedings.

Paper proposals should be for presentations of no more than 15 minutes; we are happy to consider proposals for contributions in other formats. Panel proposals should be for 2/3papers dealing with common themes.

Proposals, which should provide [1] a title, [2] an abstract of no more than 250 words, [3] the proposer’s name and contact details, should be sent to i.horwood@yorksj.ac.uk by Friday 23 January 2016 at latest. Proposers will be informed of decisions about their proposal by early March.

Further details about the conference, including registration fees, concessions, etc. will be available shortly.

Organising committee: John Bibby, Joanna de Groot, Ian Horwood

Sponsors: York St John University; Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past, History Department, University of York; also associated with the York Festival of Ideas.

CfP: Reform and Revolution in Europe, 1917-19: Entangled and Transnational Histories

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University of Tampere, Finland, 16−18 March 2017

This international conference in historical sciences analyses the political, cultural, intellectual and societal influences of the First World War in Europe, focusing especially on the emergence of new nation states. The Finnish process of declaring independence in 1917 is related to the international developments of the time, paying particular attention to transnational interaction. In Finland, the Russian Revolution of February/March 1917 started a period of constitutional ferment which led to widespread political mobilisation, constitutional controversies, a declaration of independence in the aftermath of the October/November Revolution in December 1917, a civil war in spring 1918, and finally to adoption of a republican constitution as a compromise in July 1919. In all of these phases the Finnish process of becoming an independent state was linked to and dependent on inter- and transnational developments.

Paper and session proposals

Researchers interested in contributing to the conference are invited to submit an English-language abstract of no more than 250 words to 1917conference@uta.fi no later than 15 April 2016. You can propose either a full panel of three papers (90 minutes) or an individual paper. Kindly include full contact details of the proposer and all the speakers. The organisers will inform you about the inclusion of your paper in the programme during June 2016.

The Finnish Historical Society will award a limited number of travel grants covering part of the participation costs for non-Finnish scholars who do not have a permanent academic position or other kinds of travel funding. If you would like to apply for a travel grant, kindly send your application of no more 250 words to the above-mentioned address.

Further information here.

THE book review: Geert Buelens on the poetry of the Great War

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Times Higher Education‘s book of the week is Geert Buelens’ Everything to Nothing. Deborah Longworth provides a review of this study of the interrelation of politics and poetry.

Everything to Nothing: The Poetry of the Great War, Revolution and the Transformation of Europe
By Geert Buelens
Translated by David McKay
Verso, 400pp, £20.00
ISBN 9781784781491 and 1507 (e-book)
Published 2 November 2015

For the THE review, please see here.

Postgraduate workshop: Connecting Approaches on the First World War in the Wake of the Centenary

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The programme for the Postgraduate Workshop, Connecting Approaches on the First World War in the Wake of the Centenary, taking place on Monday 7 December from 09.00-18.30, at the Maison française d’ Oxford is now available.

This workshop is generously supported by the Sanderson Fund, Oxford History Faculty, the Maison française d’Oxford and the Observatoire du centenaire de l’université Paris 1.

For the full programme, please see: http://greatwar.history.ox.ac.uk/?page_id=2042

Article by Alice Kelly: An unknown First World War story by Edith Wharton

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Dr. Alice Kelly, Postdoctoral Writing Fellow on the Women in the Humanities Programme at TORCH has had an article published in the Times Literary Supplement on her research into an unknown First World War story by Edith Wharton. The story is about Wharton’s anxieties about women in wartime and, more generally, about the broadening the canon of women’s First World War writing.

A link to the Times Literary Supplement article is here.

A link to Oxford’s Arts Blog is here.
The work has also been included The New Criterion’s Critic’s Notebook – see here, in The Atlantic – see here, in Jezebel – see here, and in The Smithsonian’s Smart News – see here.

CFP: David Jones: Dialogues with the Past

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An International, Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of York, U.K. 21-23 July, 2016.

As 2016 marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme which profoundly shaped David Jones’s imagination and thought, it provides an ideal moment to reconsider the entirety of Jones’s engagement with the many, various, elusive and intertwined ‘pasts’ through which he conceived history and culture. It will be an opportunity to explore Jones’s own style, subject matter, allusive practice and intellectual questions including the role of ‘memory’, ‘inheritance’ and ‘history’ in art and life, while also reflecting upon Jones’s own past and contemporary moment.

We welcome papers from scholars and postgraduates of multiple disciplines, including but not limited to: English, History of Art, History, Philosophy, Theology and any others that may offer relevant perspectives to the study of David Jones.

Proposals for 20-minute papers should be sent to: davidjonesdialogues@gmail.com

The deadline for paper proposals is 31 January, 2016.

Further information: http://www.firstworldwarstudies.org/blog/post.php?s=2015-10-27-cfp-david-jones-dialogues-with-the-past
Conference website: http://www.davidjonesdialogues.com/

CFP: Russia as a Field of Experiment? Scientific, Technological and Financial Investments and the Interaction of European Countries in the Russian Empire in the Decades before World War I

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For historians, the scientific, technological and financial investments and the interactions of European countries in the Russian Empire are an ideal field for the investigation of historical processes of transfer. Parallel to the military alliances formed before the First World War (Triple Alliance, Franco-Russian Alliance, and Triple Entente) the decades before 1914 were marked by vivid and rich scientific and economic contacts between the Russian Empire, the other European powers, and the United States of America. In the course of time the latter invested in the Russian Empire and transferred their know-how and capital. At the same time they increased their knowledge about this more or less unexplored country and expanded their influence in many aspects. Also Russia benefited from these ideological, scientific and economic interventions, such as in the fields of infrastructure or the professionalization of the sciences. In any case there was a mutual transfer.

Organizers: Kerstin S. Jobst (University of Vienna / Institute for East European History), Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan (Centre Roland Mousnier, Université Paris-Sorbonne)

Meeting dates: 9th-10th of June 2016
Place: Paris, Fondation Singer-Poligniac
Conference languages: French and English.

Deadline: 20 December 2015

Please send an abstract (max. 2000 characters incl. spaces) and a short CV in English or French to both organizers:
Kerstin Susanne Jobst : kerstin.susanne.jobst@univie.ac.at
F.-D. Liechtenhan : francine-dominique.liechtenhan@paris-sorbonne.fr

The conference will take place after the necessary funding has been received.

Further information here.