CfP: Key Concepts in Times of Crisis

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The 19th International Conference on Conceptual History, Aarhus University, Denmark, September 14-16, 2016

The general theme and title of the conference will be “key concepts in times of crisis”. The study of historical change through the formation of key concepts is at the core of conceptual history. Concepts can acquire the status as central within the political and social vocabulary through long historical processes. Even if concepts develop over time and change gradually we can also notice that in more turbulent periods characterized by increasing societal challenges contestation of existing concepts increases, which is often followed by a growing conceptual innovation. When more people move across the world due to catastrophes, poverty or instability, concepts of social cohesion are challenged and new ones appear as for instance the concept of the multicultural society or old ones such as the nation are revitalised. When climate change becomes more pressing in international political debates sustainability turns into a political key concept. When warfare changes with non-state combatants acting in new ways, terrorism becomes a key concept in international politics. At the 2016 conference we will study how new key concepts are coined and transmitted globally in situations where existing frameworks are severely challenged.

The organizers welcome proposals for panels or papers that look at conceptual change in situations of growing risks, crisis or even catastrophe and focus on the semantic and social changes which lead to conceptual innovation.

Proposals for individual papers should be no longer than 400 words, and proposals for panels should not exceed 800 words. Short CVs of the speakers should be added (name, institutional affiliations, major publications – not more than five). Panels at the conference will last two hours. There should be no more than four paper givers (or three paper givers and a commentator) per panel.

Please send your proposals to conceptualhistory@cas.au.dk.

The deadline for sending in proposals is 31 May 2016.

Further information here.

Bodleian Library Exhibition: The Easter Rising – 1916

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One of the many crises afflicting Asquith’s premiership was the Irish rebellion of Easter 1916. This seems to have caught the government by surprise, Asquith confiding to Sylvia Henley that it came as ‘a bolt from the blue’.

We can see the private reactions in high political circles where it seems that at first some found it difficult to take the Rising seriously. The papers of the under-secretary for Ireland, Sir Matthew Nathan, include details of day-to-day occurrences in the streets of Dublin during the Rising as reported to the Dublin Metropolitan Police. The heavy-handed British response turned what had been a small revolt into a national movement.

For further information on the exhibition and the exhibition book, including links to opening times and the Bodleian shop, see 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.

CfP: The Cadorna’s War 1915-1917

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Trieste, Italy, October 2016

The General Staff of the Italian Army, the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and Tourism – Directorate General Fine Arts and Landscape, the University of Trieste, the Institute of Political Studies “San Pio V” in Rome and the Institute for the History of Liberal Thought are organizing an international study meeting on “The Cadorna’s War 1915-1917” that will take place in Trieste in October 2016. The meeting will be divided into three panels: political, military and international relations. The aim of the meeting is a critical review of the period from 1915 to 1917, where Italy was involved in his offensive war, led by General Cadorna, against the Central Powers. The main themes on which to focus in proposing papers are:

The political panel will cover the analysis of sequences of governments to the crisis Cabinet Boselli, the leading political forces and factions, the issues of economic and financial, the industrial mobilization and patriotic mobilization and civil.

The military panel will address the following points: management of the war and its aims; the main battles and offensive; the specialties of the army and used in line with the evolution of the technological needs of war; the role of the navy and air force; military justice; discipline and personnel management; war Italian outside of Italy.

The panel will focus on diplomatic international relations with a focus on the following themes: political relations and military allies; the entry in war of the United States and countries of the Danubian and Balkan; the February Revolution in Russia; the inter-Allied command; Italian diplomacy and the purpose of the war; Gjirokastra; the Conference of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne; the declaration of war on Germany; the Masonic Congress in Paris.

These theme topics should be treated in all their complexity, avoiding excessive specialization in the papers.

Those interested in attending the meeting, please send paper proposals of no more than 300 words, with a short biography, to the following e-mail addresses by 30 June 2016: italianeutrale1914@gmail.com

Italian, English and French are the languages of the meeting.

Contact: Andrea Ungari (aungari@luiss.it; a.ungari@unimarconi.it)

CfP: Defining Canada, 1867-2017: values, practices and representations

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International Conference / Congress of The French Association of Canadian Studies
Paris, 14-16 June 2017

On July 1st 2017, Canada will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation. On this historic occasion, the French Association of Canadian Studies (AFEC), in conjunction with the Research Center on Anglophone Cultures (LARCA) of Université Paris Diderot, will hold a conference to explore the evolution of Canada and what defines it. This conference intents to favor the historical perspective of the longue durée, by examining not only what defines Canada in 2017, but by comparing this with the way it was defined in 1867, at the time of Confederation, as well as in 1967, at the time of the centennial. To do so, the conference will be organized around three guiding lines that correspond to the values, the practices and the representations through which Canada is defined.

Abstracts can be submitted individually or as a panel (group of 4 proposals around the same topic), in French or in English.

Deadline to submit abstracts (400 words) along with a short bio (100 words), preferably in Word format: 1st July 2016

Notification of acceptance: 30 September 2016

Contact: Dr. Laurence CROS
Associate Professor, Canadian Studies,
Université Paris Diderot (Paris 7)
Email: laurence.cros@univ-paris-diderot.fr

Selected papers from this conference will be published in the journal Études Canadiennes / Canadian Studies, first as a paper issue, followed one year later by a free-access electronic issue on http://eccs.revues.or/

Further information here.

Vacancy: Research Associate (The First World War and Global Religions: Islam)

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History Faculty, George Street, Oxford
Grade 7: £30,738 p.a.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the first major research project investigating the role of religion during the First World War. The AHRC-funded project is based at the History Faculty, and will build on Oxford’s ‘Globalizing and Localizing the Great War’ research network. The project team will work together to produce a genuinely transnational history of religion, incorporating both the impact of the war on religious ideas and a consideration of how the war influenced (and was influenced by) the beliefs and practices of millions of people from a range of religious traditions.

We are seeking a talented and enthusiastic individual to carry out research on some aspect of Islam in the era of the Great War; s/he will also publish and publicise the work, provide guidance to junior members of the group and work with the group to disseminate the findings within and beyond academia.

The appointee will hold a relevant doctorate, or show evidence that a doctorate is imminently expected, and have excellent oral and written communication skills, including fluency in relevant languages; experience of successful academic collaborations would be an advantage.

The appointment is fixed-term for 3 years, with a flexible start date (to fall between April and October 2016). This post will report to Dr Faisal Devji: for an informal discussion about the role, please email: faisal.devji@history.ox.ac.uk.

To apply for this role and for further details, including the job description and selection criteria, please see here.

The deadline for applications is 12.00 noon on Wednesday 16 March 2016.

CFP (deadline postponed) – The First World War from Tripoli to Mogadishu (1911-1924)

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“How, because of two wild beasts the world was set alight”

International conference – Addis Ababa University – Sep. 30 – Aug. 1, 2016

Call for abstracts. Attention! Deadline postponed to February 12, 2016.

The idea that WWI has been a global conflict is commonly accepted by the scholarly community and it constitutes a real leitmotif of the most recent literature on this topic. As a consequence of this development, a number of scholars has started investigating the impact of WWI on Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and even Latin America.

Indeed, the Great War, as it is otherwise called, deserves to be remembered not just by the nations of Europe but also by the peoples of the rest of the world whose destinies were shaped by it or because of it. This includes the Middle Eastern countries and a number of German colonies in Africa. Historians have studied the course of the war in these parts and have established how much price was paid and what the enduring legacies were. The effects of the war on the countries of Northeast Africa has not been studied with as much depth. Nevertheless, the available documentation clearly reveals that the First World War indeed had an impact on the history of the region.

Applicants are encouraged to submit original work on the conference themes. To apply, please, send 500 words proposal for 20 minutes papers, inclusive of: paper title, a clear description of sources and methodology that will be used in the paper, and institutional affiliation. To the proposal should also be attached an academic CV.

Proposals must be sent to the following address: secretariat.scientifique@cfee.cnrs.fr, no later than February 12 2016.

Further information here.