Summer School: The Face of First World War Battlefields and Battles

Summer School for Graduate students: June 26th to July 2nd 2016, Péronne & Verdun

With financial support from the Conseil départemental de la Somme, the Mission du Centenaire 14-18, and the Office franco-allemand pour la jeunesse.

The International Research Centre of the Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne, with its partners at the EHESS Paris, the Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, Potsdam and the Université de Picardie Jules Vernes invites applications for its summer school in Verdun and Péronne for graduate students working on the First World War or modern conflicts more generally.

Applications (in English or French) consisting of a 1-page summary of the candidate’s field of research [or: “research interests”] and a 1-page academic CV must be received before midnight on 15th February 2016 online: http://batailles2016.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en

Further information: CFP-batailles-Historial

CfP: Seeking third paper for panel on internationalism, warfare, & popular politics in interwar Britain (NACBS 2016)

We are two doctoral candidates seeking a third participant for a proposed panel on internationalism, warfare, popular politics, and humanitarianism in Britain between the world wars, for the 2016 NACBS session in Washington, D.C.

One paper will focus on popular internationalism and the transnational circulation of commercial narratives of the Great War in the theatre and film industries during the 1920s and 1930s. The other paper will examine the transnational circulation of British and French press among British relief workers and its use in humanitarian campaigns during the Spanish Civil War.

Submissions for the NACBS close on 2 March 2016. We are asking interested participants to submit a CV and abstract to both Emily Curtis Walters (emilycurtiswalters@u.northwestern.edu) & Kerrie Holloway (k.k.holloway@qmul.ac.uk) by Sunday, 31 January 2016.

Further information here.

CfS: New England and the First World War

The New England Quarterly is entertaining submissions for a special issue commemorating the centennial of the First World War and analyzing New England’s participation in the war. Successful submissions will be consistent with The Quarterly‘s traditional editorial policy of reflecting all aspects of the history of New England’s life and letters as they reflect an organic part of the United States and the world. The editors are especially interested in topics that address hitherto unrepresented groups, deepen our understanding of connections of the regional, national, and global consequences of the First World War, and that stimulate new fields of inquiry. Contributions addressing New Englanders’ military and homefront experiences are welcome, as are essays considering the war’s impact on New England.

Submissions should follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed.

Essays submitted for the commemorative issue cannot be considered after 1 January 2017.

Inquiries about the special issue may be addressed to the guest editor, Christopher Capozzola, at capozzol@mit.edu.[CC2]

Please submit electronic copies in Word and pdf to neq@umb.edu; an additional hard copy should be submitted to:

The New England Quarterly
c/o Jonathan M. Chu
Department of History
University of Massachusetts, Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.

Final CfP: Business as usual? Institutional impact in the First World War

Wednesday, 2 March 2016 in the Senate Room, University of Glasgow.

This day conference will bring together researchers from a variety of disciplines to examine the role of institutional involvement in an individual’s experience of the First World War. We will consider submissions for all types of institution from educational establishments, churches, professional bodies, clubs and societies, to commercial and industrial companies and other workplaces. We seek to understand how overarching corporate entities with localised institutional identities impacted participation in the First World War and how the war changed or redefined these discrete communities.

The remit is wide-ranging and we welcome submissions from academic researchers in subjects like History, Archaeology, Sociology, Anthropology, and Theology, as well as individuals working in cultural heritage management, museums, archives, schools, corporate history, and community research projects. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent to Jennifer.Novotny@glasgow.ac.uk by Monday, 4 January 2016.

Further information here.

CfP: The Major Battles of 1916 – extended deadline

Update to blog posting: http://greatwar.history.ox.ac.uk/?p=1843

The French Commission for the Centenary of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Mission du Centenaire 14-18) and its Scientific Council are organizing an international conference in Paris, 22, 23 and 24 of June 2016 about The Major Battles of 1916.

Further information can be found here.

Papers will not be read out by their authors but will be summarized in a report presented by a rapporteur in order to facilitate a broad discussion, during which the authors will be able to express their ideas.

The working languages of the conference will be French, English and German, with simultaneous translation.

Papers in Russian will be accepted.

Proposals for communication plans must reach the scientific secretariat of the Mission du Centenaire 14-18, 109 Boulevard Malesherbes, 75008 PARIS, (alexandre.lafon@centenaire.org) before the 4th of January 2016. They should consist in an outline of not more than 1,000 words.

The Scientific Council will examine the proposals. Those selected must be fully received by the end of March 2016, in order to allow their translation into French if necessary and for the rapporteurs to draft their reports on time.

In addition to the regular sessions consisting of the rapporteurs’ presentation of the papers followed by the general discussion, there will be three or four keynote speeches, including one to open and close the conference. It is also hoped that at the end of the conference two daylong (but mutually exclusive) battlefield visits will be organized, one to Verdun and the other to Somme.

CfS: Painting, Memory and the Great War

Call for Submissions for a volume on ‘Painting, Memory and the Great War’, edited by Margaret Hutchinson and Steven Trout.

Over the past century, paintings of the Great War have played an important role in shaping and expressing public memory of the conflict. Indeed, many canvases—think, for example, of the Panthéon de la Guerre or John Singer Sargent’s iconic Gassed—have enjoyed just as much cultural prominence as photographs or works of cinema. The Great War represents a “last hurrah” for painting as a significant form of cultural war remembrance. This volume will examine paintings as sites of memory, highlighting the dynamic exchange between artists and their patrons, both of whom were responsible for determining what was remembered in, and what was absent from, the
canvas.

This volume seeks to draw together essays addressing individual paintings from a range of belligerent nations, including (but not limited to) Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, and the United States. Each chapter will focus on the history of a single work and its role in the construction, consolidation, or perpetuation of memory. The paintings themselves may come from a wide variety of genres and styles. We are open to essays that explore the complexity of works produced during the conflict or afterwards, whether by independent painters or by members of official wartime art programs or post-war commemoration projects.

The University of Alabama Press has agreed to consider this collection as part of its new book series War, Memory and Culture. Publication is contingent upon successful external review. Please submit an abstract of 300 words outlining your proposed chapter to Margaret Hutchison margaret.hutchison@anu.edu.au and Steven Trout strout@southalabama.edu by 1 March 2016. Essays of 7, 000 words inclusive of footnotes in current Chicago Style format are to be submitted no later than 30 November 2016. Inquiries are welcome.

New Book on Ethics and Literature of the Great War

A new book on the First World War, Etica e letteratura della Grande Guerra: rappresentazioni della crisi (Ethics and Literature of the Great War. Representations of the Crisis) (Napoli, Marchese editore), edited by Patrizia Piredda and Gianluca Cinelli has just been published.

For further information, see here.