CfP: Politics of Memory and Trauma

Posted on by

ICAS 11: Politics of Memory and Trauma
16 – 19 July 2019
Leiden University

The LDE Centre for Global Heritage and Development will organize a panel on the “Contested Heritage and the Politics of Memory and Trauma” as part of the International Convention of Asia Scholars, which will be organized at Leiden University from 16 – 19 July 2019. The panel intends to discuss the notion of “contested heritage”, in light of the politics of memory and trauma.

Wars and conflicts have a direct impact on the tangible environment. Military architectures, war ruins, wrecks and monumental memorials all together form what is known as conflict heritage. In Asia, a significant share of conflict heritage remains absent from the heritage discourse. This may be attributed to many reasons, of which: the lack of a proper recognition of this specific category of heritage. Second, the contested nature of the heritage prevent governments from touching upon the subject, especially in the cases where human causalities were involved. Third, the conflict of interests which results from the economic value of this heritage. For instance, the collection of rare types of aircraft wreckage or the activities carried by metal salvagers. What can we do to safeguard this type of heritage from its biggest threat: oblivion?

With this session we hope to raise awareness on this particular category of heritage, especially with policy makers.

While we welcome all contributions that are relevant to the theme of the panel, we particularly encourage contributions that address the following topics:

. New theoretical approaches to defining conflict heritage, with respect to the Asian context.
. Case studies from Asia that investigates the politics and dynamics of memory that surrounds contested heritage

Prospective participants may send their abstracts (max. 300 words) and brief bios to Professor Carola Hein at c.m.hein@tudelft.nl and John Hanna j.m.k.k.hanna@tudelft.nl by 01 October 2018.

For any inquiries about the panel and the conference, please write to c.m.hein@tudelft.nl

For further information on the conference, see here.

CfP: Imperial Legacies of 1919

Posted on by

CFP Deadline for Papers and Panels: December 31, 2018
Contact: imperial1919unt@gmail.com
Conference Date: April 19-20, 2019

Roundtable participant proposal deadline: 31 January 2019
Undergraduate Student Poster competition proposal deadline: 15 February 2019

Journalist and author Shrabani Basu will provide a distinguished lecture on Indian soldiers related to her recent work: For King and Another Country (2015). Prior to the conference, she will also host a screening of Victoria and Abdul, a film based on her book of the same name. Historian of the British Empire Dr. Susan Kingsley Kent will provide the keynote address. Her esteemed works include Aftershocks: Politics and Trauma in Britain, 1918-1931 (2009); The Women’s War of 1929: Gender and Violence in Colonial Nigeria (2011) and The Global Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 (2012).

Conference Description
The year 2019 is the perfect opportunity to analyze the global consequences of war and peace. That year marks the centenary of the Treaty of Versailles, which set the terms for peace after the First World War. Unfortunately, the meaning of “peace” was dictated largely by European Empires with limited visions for avoiding future conflict, not only in Europe but around the world. This conference will commemorate the 1919 centenary by hosting an international 2-day conference that explores the on-going legacies of war and imperialism.

Shifting our lens to colonial spaces and debates, “Imperial Legacies of 1919” explores the multiple and contending meanings of 1919. In South Asia, for example, the year 1919 was not known for international peace treaties but rather the 1919 Amritsar Massacre during which a British officer commanded troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd. This gave leading figures such as Mohandas Gandhi the moral imperative to fight against colonialism. At the same time, the year 1919 connotes important moments in anti-colonial revolutions in places like Ireland and Egypt. Meanwhile, strikes and labor activism intensified around the world in response to the Bolshevik revolution (1917) and the return of soldiers to the home front. Soldiers, veterans, and civilians coped with wartime traumas, postwar disabilities and demobilization well beyond 1919.

The terms of peace and creation of the League of Nations mandates led to the dismantling of the German, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires. This meant redrawing international borders, including in the Near East, in what became known as the “Middle East” in the United States. Aerial warfare in the League of Nations mandates and during the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919) targeted civilians with ongoing violence across the imperial world. Pan-Asian, Pan-African, Pan-Islamic and anti-colonial activists attempted to find alternative sources of unity to challenge European imperialism.

While the year 1919 holds an important place in world history, issues such as economic inequality, unstable border relations, religious and linguistic identities, veteran and civilian relations, gender inequality, and the long-term traumas of war remain harsh realities for people around the world. This conference will be a timely reflection on pressing global issues that link past and present.

Paper and Panel CFP (Deadline December 31, 2018): The conference organizers welcome individual paper or full panel submissions from junior and senior scholars at any stage of their academic career. We welcome proposals for both conventional 3-4 person panels and those that offer an unconventional approach to panel organization. Papers and panels may be on any region, theme, and topic related to “imperial legacies of 1919” but we especially welcome reflections on the following themes:

Borderlands, Labor, and Migration
Gendering War and Peace
War Psychology, Health, and Trauma
The League of Nations Mandate System
Crypto-Colonialism
Environment and Empire
Capitalism and Imperialism
Language and Identity
Anti-colonial and peace movements
Food, war, and empire
War Reporting, Media, and Memory

Those interested in presenting an individual paper should send a 250-word abstract and current CV by December 31, 2018 to imperial1919unt@gmail.com.

Prospective panels should send a 200-word panel abstract, 150 word abstracts for each paper, CVs for each panelist, and, if available, names of prospective chairs and commentators. Deadline: December 31, 2018.

Graduate Student Roundtable CFP (Deadline January 31, 2019):
We will also accept proposals for graduate students who would prefer to be considered for inclusion on one or more graduate student roundtable(s) on any time period or theme related to empire (Deadline January 15). We especially recommend this for MA students, pre-ABD PhD students, or PhD students who are exploring a new part of their research. Priority will be given to roundtable participants who engage with the themes of “identity and empire” or “war and empire.”

Graduate students who wish to be considered for the graduate student roundtable session should send a 100-200 word abstract for a 5-10 minute presentation that gives a general outline of what the scholar would like to contribute to a roundtable on war and empire. According to the AHA “The roundtable format—which can be used for the presentation of original research, work-in-progress, or discussion of professional concerns—offers short presentations, a fluid organization (not limited to the chair/presenter/commentator structure), and ample time for discussion with the audience. Roundtables foster a congenial exchange between audience and discussants.”

Graduate Student Ambassador: Kevin Broucke, UNT History, Military History Center Fellow

Undergraduate Poster Prize (Proposal deadline February 15, 2019):
Undergraduate students from all universities are encouraged to apply for a place in the undergraduate poster prize competition on any topic related to war and empire. All accepted and completed posters will be displayed at the conference.

Undergraduate students who wish to be considered for the undergraduate poster prize should send a 100-200 word description of their poster, with 1 to 3 sample images, related to any theme or topic relevant to this conference. For further guidelines on poster sessions please see: https://www.historians.org/annual-meeting/resources-and-guides/poster-resources/effective-poster-presentations Deadline for consideration: February 15, 2019

Undergraduate Student Ambassador: Savannah Donnelly, UNT History

About UNT
The conference will be hosted in the new, state-of-the-art, Union facilities at the University of North Texas. UNT is a tier-1 research university of over 35,000 students in the Dallas-Forth Worth Metropolitan area. We are conveniently located in Denton, about 30-45 minutes from the DFW airport. Denton is center of arts and music with a growing independent restaurant scene in North Texas. The conference organizers welcome and encourage the participation of LGBTQIA+ presenters.

We will also host a screening of Victoria & Abdul and a Q&A with the original book’s author, Shrabani Basu, on the evening of April 18, 2019, for UNT and interested conference participants and members of the public.

Registration Fees
Thanks to the generous support of the Charn Uswachoke International Development Fund, the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, UNT-International and the UNT departments of History, Linguistics, Anthropology, Political Science, English and Women’s and Gender Studies, we will be able to offer discounted registration to all presenters and participants. Travel assistance is not available.

UNT undergraduate and graduate students: Free registration for panels, film screening and keynote (registration required, meals not included)

UNT Faculty in History, Anthropology, Political Science, English, Linguistics, WGST: Free registration for panels, film screening, and keynote (registration required, meals not included)

Non-UNT undergraduate and graduate students: $25 (includes all panels, invited talks, and conference meals)

Under-employed researchers/post-doc/early career: $40 (includes all panels, invited talks, and conference meals)

Tenured associate professors or equivalent: $60 (includes all panels, invited talks, and conference meals)

Full professors: $75 (includes all panels, invited talks, and conference meals)

“Conference meals” include one lunch and one dinner and are included with paid registration.

Please send all questions, inquiries, and proposals to imperial1919unt@gmail.com

CfP: Museums as Agents of Memory and Change

Posted on by

25-26/04/2019, Estonian National Museum, Tartu, Estonia
Organisers: Estonian National Museum, University of Tartu
Keynote speakers confirmed: Dr Silke Arnold-de Simine (Birkbeck, University of London)

Museums have been shifting toward expanding their work from collecting and preserving to supporting and educating communities. They are using their collections to promote social change in the context of rising global demands on history and culture institutions. More than ever, dealing with the past is full of impediments and challenges for museums. How should they address a ‘global visitor’ who has little or no knowledge of the past – local, national or regional – to which the museum is dedicated? What stories should they tell and how, what memory cultures should they take into account? On the other hand, what have museums done and what do they intend to do in order to change the established way of remembering the past? What are the characteristics, risks and benefits in dealing with the difficult past in museums? What problems can museums tackle as they attempt to bring in changes to remembering and commemorating the past?

This conference aims to problematise museums as places of memory negotiations, and agents of societal change. While increasingly seeking to engage themselves in public life, museums are embedded in the fields of politics of memory and heritage, diverse, often disparate group interests, and power relations. How can a contemporary museum critically deal with the past and shape open debate and yet take into account diverse stakeholders and the versatility of narratives in play?

We welcome papers that approach the problems and dilemmas as well as best practices of contemporary museums as agents of memory and change:

How do museums position themselves in concurrent policies of memory and heritage? What are the roles of the museums in countries with targeted history politics? What dilemmas, possibilities and/or obstacles do they encounter in ‘memory-laden’ societies?
How do museums connect to transnational memory processes? What kind of new forms of remembrance should museums develop to make visible and/or seek to overcome tensions between group-specific, regional national and transnational memory?
How can museum relate historically specific and more abstract and structural experiences? Does anthropological universalisation have a place in national, regional or group-specific museums? How do museums address difference and shared legacy issues?
How is a transformation of the role of museums manifested in methods of visitor involvement? How are trends in recent museology linked to museums’ awareness of their role as public history agents? Are there specific trends in using media, material collections and oral histories to evoke open debate and awareness on memory matters? What topics and methods ‘work’ for different audiences, and why?
How should the issue of authorship and the autonomy of the curator in curating difficult histories (initiators, passive players, opposers) be addressed? Are curators independent agents in memory processes or do they mediate institutional points of view? Are there different practices in different types of museum (for example in art museums, cultural historical museums)?

We welcome submissions from a variety of disciplines and from museum professionals as well as academics.

Please submit your abstract of 300 words for a 20‐minute paper, along with a short CV, by October 15, 2018 to: conference@erm.ee

The conference language is English.

The conference fee of 100 EUR covers attendance to all sessions, lunches and coffee/tea breaks during the conference, welcome reception, and conference materials.

The time and venue of the conference is April 25-26, 2019 at the Estonian National Museum, Tartu, Estonia.

Notification of acceptance: November 15, 2018

Deadline for registration and conference fee payment: March 30, 2019

We are expecting to publish an edited collection based on a selection of the papers presented at the conference.

New book: For Science, King & Country. The Life and Legacy of Henry Moseley

Posted on by

Killed in action at Gallipoli in the Dardanelles Campaign of 1915, aged just twenty-seven, Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley was widely regarded as the most promising British physicist of his generation. His pioneering measurements of X-ray spectra provided a firm basis for the concept of atomic number and re-cast the periodic table of the elements into its modern form. Had he survived, he seemed destined to win a Nobel Prize.

This book is a commemoration of Moseley’s life, work, and legacy. Inspired by the exhibition ‘Dear Harry… Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War’, at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, in 2015-2016, and revisiting earlier accounts, thirteen historians and scientists chart his experience of Manchester and Oxford; his military service; the reception of his work by the scientific community; and the impact of his work upon X-ray spectroscopy in physics, chemistry, and materials science.

For Science, King & Country speaks to those with an interest in history, science, and the First World War, and draws upon a wealth of archives, artefacts, and recent research on the reward systems of science. Overall, it presents a comprehensive account of a young scientist whose brief but mercurial career paved the way to a new understanding of nature, and to shaping the future of physical science.

Edited by Professor Roy MacLeod, Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Sydney, Professor Russell G. Egdell, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of Oxford and Dr Elizabeth Bruton, Curator of Technology and Engineering at The Science Museum, London.

Download order form: For Science, King and Country Order form

Conference: Manpower and the Armies of the British Empire in Two World Wars (8-9 November 2018)

Posted on by

The program for the Royal Military College’s history symposium, Manpower and the Armies of the British Empire in Two World Wars (8-9 November 2018) is set and we have a great schedule lined up this year! See below for details.

You can register at http://rmcclub.ca. Fees (Canadian dollars): Regular $185, Students $125. Includes registration, lunch and coffee breaks for both days, and dinner at the Fort Frontenac Officer’s Mess on 8 November. Recommended Hotel, Holiday Inn Kingston Waterfront, 2 Princess Street, Kingston, ON K7L. Preferred rate of $124 for a single occupancy room, breakfast included, available until 1 October.

RMC History Symposium 2018: Manpower and the Armies of the British Empire in Two World Wars

Thursday 8 November 2018

0815-0820: Welcome

0830-0930 Gary Sheffield, “The Recruiting, Training and Battlefield Performance of British Army Officers in the Two World Wars.”
0930-1015 Richard Grayson, “Irish Identities in the Armies of the British Empire during the First World War.”

1015-1045 Coffee Break

1045-1200 Panels 1 & 2: Mobilization I: Australia and New Zealand

David Littlewood, “‘Its Necessity Need Not Be Laboured’: New Zealand’s Introduction of Conscription in 1940.”
Ross Mackie, “The Rationalisations for and Shortcomings of Compulsory Military Training in New Zealand 1909–14”
Paul Bartrop, “Mobilizing Diversity: The Formation of Australia’s 8th Employment Company as a Response to the Japanese Threat in 1942.”

Mobilization II: Canada in the First World War

Roger Sarty, “The Canadian Garrison Artillery Goes to War, 1914-1918.”
Ian Hope, “Feeding Mars: The Overseas Ministry and the Sustainment of the Canadian Corps 1916-1918.”
Howard Coombs, “Defining Canadian Participation in the First World War: The Case of No. 5/No. 7 (Queen’s University) Military Hospital.”

1200-1300 Lunch

1300-1345 Kent Fedorowich, “‘Returning Home to Fight’: Bristolians in the Dominion Armies, 1914-1918.”
1345-1430 Jean Bou, “Rolling with the Punches: Australia’s Military Effort, 1914-18.”

1430-1500 Coffee Break

1500-16:15 Panels 3 & 4: British Approaches to Developing and Sustaining Soldiers

Emma Newlands, “‘Rebelling against it one minute then taking pride in it the next’: Becoming a soldier in Britain during the Second World War.”
James Campbell, “‘Make Them Tigers’—British Military Physical Culture in the First World War.”
Linda Parker, “‘This wonderful fellowship’: The work of Talbot House and the Toc H Movement with the British and Imperial Armies in Two World Wars.”

RAF Innovations

Sebastian Cox, “An Unexpected Agent of Change: Race, Class And Social Mobility in the Royal Air Force.”
Lynsey Cobden, “A fear of flying: Psychological disorders and Royal Air Force Flying Training Command, 1939-1945.”
Sean Summerfield, “Creation and Operation of the RAF’s Casualty Branch during the Second World War.”

1615-1700 Kaushik Roy, “Manpower, Mobilization and the Indian Army during Two World Wars.”

1830 for 1900 Start RMC History Symposium Conference Banquet Fort Frontenac Officer’s Mess

Friday 9 November 2018

0830-0915 Jessica Meyer [via Skype], “Conserving Military Manpower: The work of the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War.”
0915-1000 Jonathan Fennell, “A Question of Legitimacy: Mobilizing the British and Commonwealth Armies in the Second World War.”

1000-1030 Coffee Break

1030-1145 Panels 5 & 6: Sustaining Manpower in the Canadian Army during the Second World War

Geoffrey Hayes, ““Tommy” Burns, Arthur Beament and the Manpower Crisis in First Canadian Army, 1944.”
Russell Hart, “For Want of Men: The ‘Infantry Crisis’ Amid Anglo-Canadian Forces in Normandy, Summer 1944 and its Impact on Twenty-First Army Group Operations and Effectiveness.”
Arthur Gullachsen, “Rebuilding the Royal Winnipeg Rifles June-July 1944.”

Demobilization

Allan Allport, “Demobilization of the British Armed Services after the Two World Wars”
Carol Fort, “Australia’s 1944 Manpower Release Schemes: Fairness Lessons Learned from Early Demobilization Programs.”
Victoria Sotvedt, “The End of the War?: Repatriation Efficiency and Discipline in the Canadian Army After the Second World War.”

1145-1245 Lunch

1245-1330 Daniel Byers, “Punching Above Its Weight: Canada and the Mobilization of Manpower During the Second World War.”
1330-1415 Ian van der Waag, “South African Manpower and the Second World War.”

1415-1430 Coffee Break

1430-1515 Ian McGibbon, “Stretching the Limits: Sustaining New Zealand’s War Effort 1939-1945.”

Franklin Research Grants

Posted on by

The Franklin Research Grant program is open to applications in all disciplines. The program is particularly designed to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses.

A special program within the Franklin Grant is the APS/British Academy Fellowship for Research in London. In collaboration with the British Academy, the APS offers an exchange postdoctoral fellowship for a minimum of one and a maximum of two months’ research in the archives and libraries of London during 2019. This award includes travel expenses between the United States and the United Kingdom and a monthly subsistence paid by the APS. Candidates should specify that they are asking for the British Academy Fellowship and apply by October 1; applicants not selected for the British Academy Fellowship will be considered for a Franklin Research Grant.

The deadline for applications and two letters of support is October 1, 2018, for a January 2019 decision for work in February 2019 through January 2020.

A special program within the Franklin Grant is the APS/Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities Fellowship for Research in Edinburgh. In collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh, the APS offers a visiting fellowship of between two and four months for research in Edinburgh in the calendar year 2019 in any aspect of the humanities and social sciences. Further information about the IASH, including current research themes, is available at http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/.

Applications are submitted through the IASH. Information and forms are available at https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/american-philosophical-society-fellowship. Note that there is no need to fill out a separate Franklin application, and candidates not selected for an IASH Fellowship will be considered for a Franklin Research Grant.

The deadline for applications and two letters of support is December 3, 2018, for a January 2019 decision for work in April 2019 through January 2020.

Eligibility
Applicants are expected to have a doctorate or to have published work of doctoral character and quality. Ph.D. candidates are not eligible to apply, but the Society is particularly interested in supporting the work of young scholars who have recently received the doctorate. Independent scholars and faculty members at all four-year and two-year research and non-research institutions are welcome to apply provided that all eligibility guidelines are met. American citizens and residents of the United States may use their Franklin awards at home or abroad. Foreign nationals not affiliated with a U.S. institution must use their Franklin awards for research in the United States. Applicants who have previously received a Franklin grant may reapply after an interval of two years.

Awards
Funding is offered up to a maximum of $6,000. Grants are not retroactive.

Contact Info:
Linda Musumeci
Director of Grants and Fellowships
215-440-3429
Contact Email: lmusumeci@amphilsoc.org
URL: https://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/franklin-research-grants

CFP: Monuments, The Biennial Conference of the Nordic Association of American Studies

Posted on by

25 – 27 April 2019 in Bergen, Norway

Submission deadline: 1 November 2018

Monuments construct the past in the present, and link it to a predetermined version of the future. Monuments tell singular and unified stories, acting as master narratives that impede other voices. Monuments have become some of America’s most important storytellers, giving form to power, but also to particular acts of resistance.

This is perhaps only to be expected, for the word “monument” bears within it the Latin mon, from monēre, which means “to remind,” but also means “to warn.” In its descriptive form “monumental” connotes something massive or imposing, something great in importance, but also expresses a sense of excess, of being overwhelmed. The word itself thus invites a chain of questions: What do monuments call to memory? What might they warn us against? What versions of events do they impose in presenting greatness? Who and what deserves recognition? How can monuments commemorate different or competing pasts? What should be done with monuments that uplift violent pasts?

The NAAS 2019 conference in Bergen on “Monuments” welcomes panel and paper proposals that address monuments and the monumental in relation to American literature, history, politics, media, art and popular culture, transnational and transcultural and comparative approaches. Keeping in mind that not all monuments are made of stone—Hemingway has been called a monument, political symbols and landscapes act as monuments, the literary canon and the Bible are monuments to Western culture—the list of different kinds of monuments is near endless. Some themes may be, but are not limited to:

Conceptualizations of the American past
Preservation and commemoration
Tradition and cultural heritage
Cultural perceptions, shifting attitudes towards the monument
Representation Memory and forgetting
Genre or aesthetic form
Naming
Landscapes, places and spaces
Myth
Resistance to the monument
Inscription
The non-monumental
False memories
Amnesia
Nostalgia
Imaginaries
Ossification
War
Architecture
Photography
Religion
Visibility/invisibility

Please send abstracts and panel proposals to NAASBergen@gmail.com by 15 Sept. 2018. Abstracts for individual panel presentations (20 minutes) should be no longer than 250 words; proposals for panels or workshops should be no longer than 500 words. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in October.

The conference is open to scholars and students from all countries, but we offer lower registration fees to members of NAAS (Nordic Association for American Studies), EAAS (European Association for American Studies), and ASA (American Studies Association in the U.S.).

A conference website will be made available in the autumn. If you have any questions regarding the conference or your proposal before then, please write to the conference organizers at: NAASBergen@gmail.com.

Conference organizers:
Jena Habegger-Conti, Associate Professor
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
President, American Studies Association of Norway

Asbjørn Grønstad, Professor
University of Bergen
Vice-President, American Studies Association of Norway

Lene Johannessen, Professor
University of Bergen
Committee Chair, American Studies Association of Norway