Extended deadline: cfp First World War and its Global Legacies

[Alon Lischinsky]

(With apologies for cross-posting)

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Please see the call for abstracts for the above conference.  The
deadline for receipt of these abstracts has now been extended to 1st
December.

Call for papers: The First World War and its Global Legacies: 100
Years On Held at the University of Sunderland, UK

Keynote Speaker: Kate Adie

Date: 5th – 7th April, 2014

A three-day international conference will explore the impact of this
first truly global war on the history, culture, philosophy, language
and politics of the 100 years following it.   Papers are invited from
the international scholar’s community in English in a wide a range of
disciplines – history, politics, world literatures, philosophy,
sociology, human geography, media, critical and cultural studies,
international law, linguistics, colonial and postcolonial studies.
The 'Great War' is often regarded as a watershed in both western and
global experience: the first war to involve mass mobilization of
forces across Europe and the involvement of every strata of society;
the first participation of the USA in a European war; the first
adoption of new and formidable weapons mobilised without the
consideration of civilians; the first deployment of colonial forces in
Europe; the first pursuit of global warfare on every ocean; the first
time a European war was fought in Africa; the first mobilization of
women for war production, and their engagement in medical services for
the fighting everywhere; and the first unprecedented deployment of new
technology in the form of submarines.
The aftermath of World War I heralded a new world order. The Russian,
Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires collapsed. Successful
revolutions in Russia and Turkey took place alongside failed
revolutions in Germany and Hungary. The United States rose from a
regional to an international power. As Hobsbawm has said, ‘[i]f there
was a moment when the nineteenth-century “principle of nationality”
triumphed it was at the end of Word War I’. This had ramifications
both for nationalism in Europe and for the non-western world. New
nations emerged in Europe and the Middle East and challenges to the
racial order were felt throughout the world. Changed perspectives and
political ideals everywhere followed in its wake.

The conference will focus upon the legacies of this First World War,
its impact on literary, critical, cultural and philosophical
imaginaries in the west and abroad as well as politics, international
diplomacy and attitudes towards conflict. Unlike The Second World War,
the transformative power of the event  remains vague in the minds of
many contemporary observers.  Whereas the poetry of British war poets
such as Siegfried Sassoon and  Wilfred Owen continue as canonical in
Britain, few films, apart from the pacifist classic – All Quiet on the
Western Front – explore the War’s global impact.

How has the Great War been represented, for example, in the literature
and film of the former colonies such as Kenya and India, and in the
Middle East.  What is the place and of the Great War in different
collective memories? In what ways did it stimulate both the principle
of nationality and the processes of globalisation?  Also, how is the
Great War ‘taught’ in schools?

We hope to attract scholars from a wide range of disciplines as we
seek to explore the many cultural, historical, political and
theoretical contexts of the Great War of 1914-1918.  A selection of
papers will be published.

We will be interested in paper proposals that address the following
themes but invite any relevant to the subject of the legacies of the
Great War:

Filmic and literary representation of World War I
The importance of the Great War in triggering the acceleration of the
processes of globalisation.
The changing status of women in Britain and abroad in the 100 year
aftermath of the Great War
The First World War as race war
The Communist challenge in the interwar period
The triumph of ‘the principle of nationality’
The Great War, the Middle East and Islam.
The Great War, sovereignty and transboundary networks.
Modern warfare since the Great War
The changing role of the Great War in the British imagination in its
100 year aftermath.
The role of technology in the Great War and its aftermath.
The Great War, decolonisation and postcolonialism.
The philosophy of war since the Great War
Teaching the Great War in Britain over the past 100 years


If you wish to contribute a paper please submit a proposal (maximum
300 words) to

Dr Kathleen Kerr-Koch (kath.kerr at sunderland.ac.uk) or Dr Angela Smith
(angela.smith at sunderland.ac.uk)
Faculty of Education and Society
Priestman Building
Green Terrace
Sunderland
SR1 3PZ

Proposals should be submitted no later than 1st December, 2013.
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