1-3 October 2015, University of Mississippi: Gender, War and Memory in the Anglo-American World
WAR-Net’s first conference in the USA took place at the University of Mississippi Centre for Civil War Research and History Department on 1-3 October 2015, organised by Professor Sue Grayzel. Keynotes were given by Susan-Mary Grant and Anne Sarah Rubin (The Civil War), Michael Roper and Kimberly Jensen (World War I) and Gill Plain and Leisa Meyer (World War II). For more information about the conference, click here.
29 November 2014, University of East Anglia: War, Travel, Travel Writing
The second in WAR-Net’s occasional series of genre-based conferences took place at the University of East Anglia on 29 November 2014, organised by Dr. Petra Rau with Dr. Kate McLoughlin. The theme was ‘War, Travel, Travel Writing’. Papers from a number of disciplines explored a variety of issues relating to war and travel in the fields of literature, psychology, theatre, museum studies, military history and war studies, ethnography, gender, film and media. Professor Tim Young of Nottingham Trent University and Dr. Muireann O’Cinneide of the National University of Ireland, Galway, gave the keynotes. More information and the conference programme here.
14-15 June 2014, University of St. Andrews: Bannockburn 1914
A conference entitled ‘Bannockburn 1914: Anniversary Culture, War and National Identity in Scotland’ was held on 14-15 June 2014 at the School of English, University of St. Andrews, organised by Professor Gill Plain.
2014 was the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn and the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. The conference took advantage of this anniversary confluence to ask: what did war look like in the cultural imagination of 1914? Why did men in Scotland sign up to fight in unprecedented numbers? What were the martial myths shaping Scottish identity at the end of the 19th century? How had war been mythologised in the construction of Scottish national identity? What did the Scottish soldiers of the First World War think they were fighting for? These questions were given special resonance by the fact that the Scottish referendum on independence was due to be held later in the year.
Speakers included: Prof Fran Brearton (QUB), Dr Michael Brown (St Andrews), Prof Robert Crawford (St Andrews), Dr Stefan Goebel (Kent), Dr David Goldie (Strathclyde), Prof Margaret Higonnet (UConn), Prof Caroline McCracken-Flesher (Wyoming), Dr Catriona Macdonald (Glasgow), Dr Peter MacKay (St Andrews), Dr Carol Symes (Illinois), Prof Jay Winter (Yale).
For further information, see here. A programme can be downloaded here
9 November 2013, University of Warwick: Representing Prisoner of War Experience
9 November 2012, Wolfson College, Oxford: War Writing and Life Writing
WAR-Net joined forces with the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing to put on a one-day conference on War and Life-Writing at Wolfson College, Oxford, organised by Nancy Martin with Kate McLoughlin. The keynotes were given by Professor Lyndsey Stonebridge (UEA) and Professor Michael Hammond (University of Southampton, and a poetry reading was given by the Oxford-based Palestinian poet Yousif M. Qasmiyeh.
9 March 2012, Birkbeck, University of London: War and Representation
WAR-Net met at Birkbeck, University of London for a showcase of members’ interests. Papers ranged from ‘Virtual Iraq’ to ‘the comedy of war’ in eighteenth-century novels and prints. Panels covered Holocaust representation, the First World War, the Second World War, visual representation and gender. The keynotes were given by Professor Debra Kelly (Westminster) and Professor Mary Favret (Indiana).
1 October 2011, University of Dundee: Battle-lines: War and Conflict in Popular Text and Images
This WAR-Net meeting was held jointly with the Scottish Word and Image Group at the University of Dundee on 1 October 2011. Many thanks to Keith Williams and other members of the SWIG committee for organising Battle-lines: War and Conflict in Popular Text and Images. The keynote talk, on the theme of friendship, was given by Owen Dudley Edwards of the University of Edinburgh.
Matthew Jarron mounted a special exhibition and reading from the University’s archival collection of the work of Joseph Lee, Dundee’s ‘forgotten’ war poet. The event took place at the same time as a special exhibition celebrating Commando comic’s ‘50 Years of Action & Adventure’, through original artwork and other materials, much of which had never been seen publicly before.
12 March 2011, University of Newcastle: War and Gender
A WAR-Net conference on War and Gender took place on 12 March 2011 at Newcastle University, organised by Katherine Cooper and supported by Newcastle’s Gender Studies Group. Keynote talks were given by Victoria Stewart, University of Leicester, on ”A Bomb Made of Words’: Wartime Correspondence’ and Gabriel Koureas, Birkbeck, University of London, on ‘Terrorist Masculinities: The Terrorist in Cyprus (1955-59) and the War on Terror”.
Twenty-eight other papers were also given, by speakers from across the UK, Europe and North America, on subjects ranging from the eighteenth-century army to the depiction of women in twentieth-century Japan to Spike Lee. It was a rich and stimulating day: thank you to Newcastle.
13 March 2010, University of St. Andrews: Inaugural Meeting
The inaugural meeting of WAR-Net took place at the University of St. Andrews on 13 March 2010. There were papers on:
‘Trauma and the Child Soldier’ (Anne Whitehead, University of Newcastle)
‘The Imitation of Trauma: False Memoir Syndrome’ (Sue Vice, University of Sheffield)
‘“Irrepressible Conflict”: The Divided Print Culture of the American Civil War’ (Will Kaufman, University of Central Lancashire)
‘Scotland for Ever?: The Scottish Soldier in the First World War’ (David Goldie, University of Strathclyde).
A round table discussion established keen interest in future meetings and a commitment to encouraging post-graduate participation. We are grateful to the School of English at St Andrews for financial and practical support.
WAR-Net 