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| Senegalese soldiers in Belgium (Battle of Aisne) |
We’ve already dealt with the
problem of the connection between center and peripheries in the Great War and
we’ve already raised the question whether such a distinction may be today
regarded as senseless one. Even the smallest nations and the colonies which
supported the opposite imperial forces during the WWI played in fact a not
negligible role, even regarding the mere quantitative terms of the war economy.
If we then turn to the social and cultural aspects, these (seemingly)
“peripheral protagonists” disclose important insight into the epochal changes
which characterizes the period and provide – at some stage better than the
“central actors” of the conflict – new perspective for a transnational and
comparative analysis and discussions. In order to promote the debate on this
topic a workshop will be organized in June 2014 at the History Department of
the National University of Ireland, Galway. Paper Proposal are welcomed till
the end of February. You can find below the complete CfP with a list of the
themes which should be discussed.
Call for Papers for an
International Workshop on
Small Nations and Colonial
Peripheries in World War I:
Europe and the Wider World
National University of
Ireland, Galway
Friday 13th-Saturday 14th
June 2014
The purpose of this workshop
is to provide a forum of debate for transnational and comparative
approaches to the history of
small European nations and Europe’s colonial peripheries in World War I in the
context of the epochal changes brought by the collapse of large imperial
states. Our aim is to reach a more nuanced understanding of the complex
relationship between the peripheral regions of Europe and her empires and
Europe’s metropolitan core through the comparative and transnational analysis
of the contribution of European, Asian and African peripheries to the war
effort in World War I.
Prof. Michael S. Neiberg, an
eminent scholar of World War I, will deliver the keynote address. Prof.Neiberg
has written extensively on the multiple theatres and global reach of the War,
most notably in Fighting the Great War: A Global History (Harvard, 2006) and
Dance of the Furies: Europe and theOutbreak of World War I (2011).
Scholars are invited to
submit papers on themes focusing on social, political, or economic aspects
ofEurope’s small nations and colonial regions during World War I.
Themes covered may include
the following:
• Colonial troops serving in Europe
• Troops of ethnic European minority populations serving in Europe
• Troops of ethnic European minority populations serving in overseas colonies
• Experiences of populations of independent small nations in Europe
• Experiences of populations of ethnic minorities within European multiethnic states
• Experiences of indigenous and settler populations of European overseas empires
• Official attempts to mobilise popular support across all ethnic groups in Europe and in the overseas colonies
• Support for or resistance to such mobilisation efforts and their different outcomes
Papers may address the following geographical regions:
• Peripheries of European multi-ethnic empires in Europe
• Peripheries of European belligerent powers to the east and south of Europe
• Europe’s overseas colonies
• Troops of ethnic European minority populations serving in Europe
• Troops of ethnic European minority populations serving in overseas colonies
• Experiences of populations of independent small nations in Europe
• Experiences of populations of ethnic minorities within European multiethnic states
• Experiences of indigenous and settler populations of European overseas empires
• Official attempts to mobilise popular support across all ethnic groups in Europe and in the overseas colonies
• Support for or resistance to such mobilisation efforts and their different outcomes
Papers may address the following geographical regions:
• Peripheries of European multi-ethnic empires in Europe
• Peripheries of European belligerent powers to the east and south of Europe
• Europe’s overseas colonies
The workshop is an initiative
of Róisín Healy, Enrico Dal Lago, and Gearóid Barry at the History Department,
NUI Galway, and will be held in June 2014 in order to mark the beginning of the
commemorations for the hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I.
