Tag Archives: military history

Vacancy: Assistant Professor, Military History/War and Society, Virginia Tech

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The History Department at Virginia Tech seeks applicants for a tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor to begin in August 2018. Geographical focus and chronological period are open. We particularly encourage applicants who take a War and Society approach to military history, covering such topics as the social, cultural, political, technological, and economic dimensions of warfare; civilian-military and homefront-battlefield relations; the impact of war on soldiers, civilians, veterans, and the environment; and the causes, commemoration, and consequences of war.

Required qualifications include a Ph.D. in history or related field by the time of appointment; an ability to teach a survey course in modern military history and to develop new undergraduate and graduate courses; and a record demonstrating a promise of excellence in research and teaching. The successful candidate will be expected to make significant contributions to the department’s War and Society minor. S/he will also be expected to work effectively with a diverse community in support of Virginia Tech’s Principles of Community. Preference will be shown for candidates with experience related to the university’s transdisciplinary Integrated Security Destination Area; a commitment to the use of emerging technology and new media in teaching and research; the potential for obtaining external funding; and an interest in contributing to one or more of the department’s strengths in public history, race and gender, and the history of science, technology, medicine, and environment.

The successful candidate will engage in transdisciplinary research, curriculum, and/or outreach initiatives with other university faculty working in Virginia Tech’s Integrated Security Destination Area. The Integrated Security Destination Area is focused on understanding and fostering a world in which individuals, institutions, and nations are secured by technology and social systems that follow ethical principles and promote values of social justice. Faculty working together in this area are bringing a transdisciplinary approach to the complex range of human and systems security challenges. Visit provost.vt.edu/destination-areas.html for more information about Destination Areas.

The Carnegie Foundation classifies Virginia Tech as a university with “very high research activity,” and the History Department also has a strong record of excellence in teaching. The normal teaching load in the History Department is two courses per semester. Members of the department work closely with faculty in transdisciplinary programs, including Women’s and Gender Studies, Africana Studies, Science and Technology Studies, ASPECT/Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought. The department houses the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies (civilwar.vt.edu).

Located in the town of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech is the largest state-supported university in Virginia. Blacksburg, between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountain ranges, was voted a Top 10 “dream town” for outdoor activities by Outside Magazine, and declared the “Best Place in the U.S. to Raise Kids” by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Virginia Tech does not discriminate against employees, students, or applicants on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, or veteran status; or otherwise discriminate against employees or applicants who inquire about, discuss, or disclose their compensation or the compensation of other employees, or applicants; or any other basis protected by law (http://www.vt.edu/about/equal-opportunity.html). For inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies, contact the Office of Equity and Access at 540-231-2010 or Virginia Tech, North End Center, Suite 2300 (0318), 300 Turner St. NW, Blacksburg, VA 24061.

Virginia Tech encourages applications from women, minorities, veterans, and people with disabilities. The university also responds to the needs of dual career couples and has a variety of policies in place to provide flexibility for faculty careers.

Candidates must apply online at http://listings.jobs.vt.edu/postings/80695 and provide a letter of application, CV, an article-length writing sample (upload under “Other Doc”), a 1-2 page statement of teaching philosophy, a 1-2 page statement describing the applicant’s interest in and/or experience working with diverse groups and under represented populations (upload under “Doc 2”), and contact information for three references, who will be invited to submit their letters of recommendation online. Review of applications will begin on December 1, 2017.

For further information, contact Paul Quigley at pquigley@vt.edu

CfP: Third Issue of the Journal of Studies in History & Culture

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Events to commemorate the centenary of the First World War have been organized since 2014 and would continue through 2018. It has already sparked of various retellings on the war in fiction and celluloid. The third issue of JSHC attempts to offer renewed perspectives on the First World War. While war and society is the general theme for this issue, all the content in our issues have never been restricted to the pre-decided theme alone. Therefore, we welcome contributors for wide ranging perspectives and discussions on general issues beyond the present theme.

To understand war in the longue durée one needs a comprehensive understanding. We encourage papers which examine comprehensive studies of war using panoptican views, by means of theoretical, political or philosophical scalpels; and papers from diplomacy, strategy and international relations perspectives, as well as papers on individual lives. Besides, papers from a military history vantage point are equally welcome. Papers from a memory studies perspective looking at collective memorialisation around or with relation to a particular war would be particularly interesting for us to consider for publication.

We are also looking for papers from comparative literary perspectives which study literature produced during war or with war as a thematic reference. Analyses of diverse hagiographies and/or their influence on formal histories could also be an important aspect to this. Papers from an environmental perspective are equally welcome.

For historians war has been both a historical schema, within which one could study societal changes as well as a chassis, to locate micro histories of soldiers, technology, techniques, formations, strategies, etc. The moral supremacy attached to professional warriors, wrote Marc Bloch, continuing till present times is symbolic of the divergence between the peasant and the knight right from the emergence of the feudal age. Bloch fought in both World Wars. He was a part of the French Army in the First World War. The experiences affected his personality and his historical output. His experiences during the war produced Memoirs of the War, 1914 – 1915 and is also said to have influenced Réflexions d’un historien sur les fausses nouvelles de la guerre (1922). The Second World War was more defining though. From the campaign of June 1940 to a part of the resistance press, the Second World War affected him personally as a Jew in Germany. This time there was to be no memoir, no Réflexions. He was tortured by the Germans in 1944, inside the fortress of Montluc and finally assassinated on June 16 at St. Didier, near Lyons. In line with Bloch’s work we encourage authors to submit papers looking at variety of topics right from propaganda to underlying conditions of society, in a comparative historical framework.

That said, papers not related to the theme are also welcome.

Increasing budget cuts in the humanities have been seen by many as part of a larger plan to dissolve the humanities. Therefore, papers situating war within the context of epistemological invasions are also welcome.

However, such attempts at dissolution are not merely a warning sign for the humanities but higher education in general, and anything certified as unprofitable by the market. With market forces gnawing into whatever little space for decision making was left within the academia, JSHC sees this as a moment of opportunity – opportunity to seek greater collaboration among disciplines, wherein they can come together in evolving mutually beneficial frameworks for academic exchanges, as well as myriad forms of resistance on scholarly fora to stand united in solidarity against the onslaught.

The last date for submission is 30th of November, 2017. Check out the previous issues on www.jshc.org. Papers can be sent in to editors.jshc@gmail.com. For any specific inquiries write to info@jshc.org.

ICMH André Corvisier Prize for PhD theses on Military History

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The International Commission of Military History awards the “André Corvisier Prize for PhD theses on Military History”, named after the distinguished French scholar who was for ten years President of ICMH and then President of Honour.

For the 2017 edition, the prize will be awarded for a PhD thesis discussed and approved in 2015 and 2016 in a recognized University. The amount of the Prize is fixed at €3.000, plus a maximum of €1.500 to cover the recipient’s expenses for participation at the award ceremony during the XLIII ICMH Congress in Douala.

Deadline: 31 March 2017.

Download further information: André Corvisier Prize-Prix André Corvisier

CfP: National formations in the Great War: from an imperial mobilization policy to armies of independent nation states

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Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum
Tallinn-Tartu, April 25–26, 2017

The Estonian War Museum’s annual conference for 2017, marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Estonian national units within the Russian imperial army, will aim at a comparative study of national formations in the Great War. It will analyse the political and military goals of the empires in recruiting and forming national units. To what extent were national formations tools for imperial war propaganda and mobilization, to what extent were they supposed to rouse national separatism against those empires? How important was the initiative by national leaders themselves? Obviously, internationalist agitation by the Bolsheviks, which competed with nationalist agitation, cannot be discounted as well. When empires collapsed, a number of those national units became the germ for armies of new states that fought in independence or freedom wars; but there were national formations on the other side, in the Red Army, too. What was the effect of national units in the long term? Clearly, there were attempts to revive the policy in the Second World War.

Please send abstracts of your papers (length up to 4,000 characters) in English or Estonian by 31 January 2017 to conference@esm.ee. Panel proposals should include the abstracts of all prospective speakers. We also request that you send a short, one-page CV with an overview of your research so far. The length of presentations will be 20 minutes. The working languages of the conference will be English and Estonian. All the presentations in Estonian will be interpreted into English and vice versa. Articles based on the presentations will be published in the Estonian Yearbook of Military History in 2018. The Estonian War Museum will cover the costs of stay in Estonia. All speakers can also request compensation for travel costs.

The conference is held by the Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum in co-operation with the Estonian National Military College. The events of 25 April will take place in the War Museum in Tallinn. For the second day on 26 April, all participants will be taken to the Military College in Tartu, and brought back to Tallinn at the end of the conference.

Further information here.

CfP: Innovation, Adaptation and Change in War

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Innovation, Adaptation and Change in War
New Research in Military History: A Conference for Postgraduate and Early Career Historians

26th November 2016
Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London

This conference, organised by the British Commission for Military History in association with the University of Sussex and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, intends to highlight current research being undertaken by postgraduate and early career scholars in the field of military history and related disciplines.

This is the British Commission for Military History’s seventh annual New Research Conference giving postgraduate and early career scholars an excellent opportunity to meet, share new ideas and discuss the latest research.

The conference theme focuses on change in war, innovation and society. This might include matters relating to military organisations, technology and culture as well subjects concerned with strategy, tactics and social change. Proposals that move beyond solely British issues and engage global, colonial and post-colonial perspectives are particularly encouraged.

The conference organisers will also be very happy to receive papers on other topics related to military history, broadly defined, including those that deal with gender, society, identity and race.

Proposals (c. 300 words) for papers of 20 minutes should be submitted, along with an academic CV, to the organisers at bcmhnrc@gmail.com by Sunday 31st July 2016. The organisers welcome proposals for panel submissions as well as individual papers.

Contributors will automatically be considered for publication in a special issue of the British Journal for Military History.

Further information here.

Vacancy: Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow, Naval War College

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The Naval War College, Rhode Island, USA is seeking a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow in their Strategy and Policy Department.

Responsibilities: The post-doctoral teaching and research fellowship is a one year appointment renewable for a second year. The in-residence fellowship begins in August/September 2016. The position’s teaching requirement is two seminars of the Strategy & War Course taught in the winter trimester from November to February (overall Ox2x0 load). Seminars average 12 professional students who are mid-career officers and civilian government employees. Seminars are team-taught by a civilian academic and a military faculty member. Expectations are high in both teaching and research.

Qualifications and Competencies: Qualified candidates must have a recent Ph.D. or have defended their dissertation at the time of appointment. A doctorate in International Relations, International Security Affairs, Political Economy, Regional Studies, Diplomatic and International History, War Studies, Naval History, or Military History is highly desired.

Salary Considerations: Salary is competitive at $55,000, with benefits, and $5,000 for research support.

Closing date: 31 March 2016.

Further information here.

Talk: Military Occupation, International Law, and the End of the 19th Century Conception of War

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The Long Nineteenth Century Graduate Seminar

30 November 2015, 11:10 (Monday, 8th week, Michaelmas 2015)
MacGregor Room, Oriel College

Speaker: Jonathan Gumz (Department of History, University of Birmingham)

Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only