For PhD/ECR members of @fwwsoc.bsky.social - the Society has a call for papers out for 'New Voices in First World War Studies' - a virtual conference planned for June.
It's a great opportunity for members to showcase their amazing new research. See here for more:
drive.google.com/file/d/12DLx... 🗃️
My review of excellent new book ‘Framing the First World War’ edited by the dream team @draefox.bsky.social @dmorganowen.bsky.social and Michael Finch is now in @fwwsjournal.bsky.social
50 free eprints available here:
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/VRRIQ...
The driving force being the conference, Prof. François Cochet sums up the proceedings, highlighting the links between the battles of Verdun and the Somme. This conference’s goal was to challenge their perception as two separate events. Personally, I think we succeeded. Publications forthcoming
On my way to a conference at Verdun to talk about the place of the battle in Russian strategy in 1916.
The Memorial of Verdun has a great programme of events to mark the 110th anniversary of the battle, check it out.
memorial-verdun.fr/fr/programma...
Not the First World War content but here is a great article on the Cold War!
If you are in St Andrews on 9 March, please come along to ‘Framing the First World War’ book launch. Aimée, Dave and Mike have done a terrific job with the book that explores how combatants framed the conflict as it unfolded. I will also present on my contribution on Russo-French military learning.
Featuring our very own Book Review Editor, Daniel Steinbach, come and hear more about the book review process both at FWWS specifically and more generally
(NB this is a members only event - and an excellent example of why you should join the Society, as well as receiving our journal!)
We are having one last big conference in Dublin on civil wars in June. Send your proposals in by 13 February if you would like to join us there.
“Experiencing, reporting, recording civil wars, 1917-1949” University College Dublin, 25-26 June 2025 From 1917 to 1949, Europe saw a proliferation of internal conflicts and civil wars that were often connected with global conflicts and wars of decolonization. Historians have long established the (re)founding nature of experiences such as World War I (often described as the crucible of the 20th century) and World War II. Despite the omnipresence of civil wars contemporary to these two major conflicts, their experience was almost often examined within narrow national frames. Yet , the experiences of Europe’s civil wars were both distinct and, above all, connected: many Spaniards who experienced exile during the Retirada joined the anti-fascist resistance in World War II; veterans of the Russian Civil War joined the Republicans; reporters sent to the Spanish Civil War travelled to other European conflicts to forge the narratives and images disseminated in the press and media; Greek officers who had served during the Russian Civil War featured prominently in the Greek Civil War. With time these cross-national experiences were overshadowed by one-sided national narratives, with limited archives available, and the experiences of the other side of the civil war often preserved in exile, excluded from the national community. The aim of this international conference is to examine everyday experiences in Europe’s civil wars of 1917 and 1949, and to explore how they were recorded and narrated at the time and after the conflict. We particularly welcome papers which seek to explore entanglements and interconnections between different civil wars.
Call for papers: “Experiencing, reporting, recording civil wars, 1917-1949” University College Dublin (@ucddublin.bsky.social), 25-26 June 2025.
Deadline: 13 February 2026. More info to come here: civil-wars.eu/workshops/
#CivilWar
📅 Colloque "Travail en temps de guerre (XIXe-XXe s.)", Université de Tours (site Tanneurs) les jeudi 27 et vendredi 28 novembre. Informations et programme complet : cethis.hypotheses.org/10078
L'évènement pourra aussi être suivi à distance, sur demande.
Last week's wonderful Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture by @juliarsct.bsky.social on the subject of 'Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War', is now available to watch on the Society YouTube Channel: youtu.be/yoaRVrmjDLw?...
⚠️ Time is running out! ⚠️
🗓️ The deadline for applications for The WFA PhD Grant Scheme is 1 December.
📣 No topics are off limits, ANY First World War research considered!
#FWWHist #PhDchat
CALL FOR PAPERS Food and Nutrition in Wartime in the Modern World, 19th-21st centuries 16-17 April 2026 We welcome papers with a historical focus on a range of food and nutrition-related topics, including, but not limited to: Technological and productive innovations in food production in war Food and nutrition as a site of technocratic and bureaucratic developments Food and nutrition science in wartime Turning points in the development of bureaucratic, legal, social, political, etc approaches to food management e.g. the impact of the First World War blockade on the Second World War or wartime rationing on subsequent wars Social, cultural and legal perspectives on feeding of civilian, combatant and incarcerated/prisoner populations in war. Civilian, individual and/or community responses to food shortages. Survival strategies for populations facing difficulties accessing food and malnutrition in war, including generational and demographic cohort effects e.g. the elderly, marginalised and minority populations, such as those living in asylums, etc. Humanitarian interventions; including logistics, organisations, distribution on the ground and the use of humanitarian aid for religious, social or political aims. The weaponisation of food and nutrition in war in colonial and civil war contexts. The changing uses of food and nutrition in local, regional, national or international contexts over the period. Proposed panels (submissions do not need to be limited by these themes): Feeding incarcerated populations in wartime. Wartime occupations. Humanitarian interventions. Feeding fighters and civilians during asymmetric warfare, civil wars, guerrilla wars and/or anticolonial wars. Please submit a paper title and abstract of no more than 300 words to foodandwarconf@gmail.com by Monday 22 December 2025, 5pm (UK time). Informal enquiries may be sent to foodandwarconf@gmail.com.
CALL FOR PAPERS Food and Nutrition in Wartime in the Modern World, 19th-21st centuries 16-17 April 2026 We welcome papers with a historical focus on a range of food and nutrition-related topics, including, but not limited to: Technological and productive innovations in food production in war Food and nutrition as a site of technocratic and bureaucratic developments Food and nutrition science in wartime Turning points in the development of bureaucratic, legal, social, political, etc approaches to food management e.g. the impact of the First World War blockade on the Second World War or wartime rationing on subsequent wars Social, cultural and legal perspectives on feeding of civilian, combatant and incarcerated/prisoner populations in war. Civilian, individual and/or community responses to food shortages. Survival strategies for populations facing difficulties accessing food and malnutrition in war, including generational and demographic cohort effects e.g. the elderly, marginalised and minority populations, such as those living in asylums, etc. Humanitarian interventions; including logistics, organisations, distribution on the ground and the use of humanitarian aid for religious, social or political aims. The weaponisation of food and nutrition in war in colonial and civil war contexts. The changing uses of food and nutrition in local, regional, national or international contexts over the period. Proposed panels (submissions do not need to be limited by these themes): Feeding incarcerated populations in wartime. Wartime occupations. Humanitarian interventions. Feeding fighters and civilians during asymmetric warfare, civil wars, guerrilla wars and/or anticolonial wars. Please submit a paper title and abstract of no more than 300 words to foodandwarconf@gmail.com by Monday 22 December 2025, 5pm (UK time). Informal enquiries may be sent to foodandwarconf@gmail.com.
I'm so pleased to share this Call for Papers for a conference on Food and Nutrition in Wartime in the Modern World, 19th-21st centuries, organised with my colleagues Chris Batten and @rfhodge.bsky.social, kindly supported by @fwwsoc.bsky.social. Submissions to foodandwarconf@gmail.com by 22/12/25!
Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War 5.30pm, Tuesday 11 November 2025 Craiglockhart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University What did the First World War do to poetry? What did poetry do during the First World War? In this lecture, Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz will explore a brand new corpus of war poets to interrogate not what is a good or bad war poem nor what war poems say about the war, but rather the social and cultural functions accomplished by poetry in 1914-1918: inventing itself, creating social links, anchoring the war in relation to a poetic past and multiple imagined futures, mediating the experience of war, and producing knowledge about the conflict. She will explore how the expansion of our definition of war poetry allows us to ask new questions about the First World War, as well as future possibilities to continue broadening our understanding of what war poetry was and, above all, what it did and continues doing for those writing and reading it. Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz is a postdoctoral researcher at Université de Lille. She completed her doctorate, on French poetry of the First World War, at Université Paris Nanterre. Julia has already published widely in academic journals, and is a Fellow of the International Society for First World War Studies. This lecture continues the annual series of Remembrance lectures at Edinburgh Napier University, marking the historical significance of Craiglockhart as a War Hospital during the First World War, famously the meeting place of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. We also remember our late colleague Catherine Walker, who was for many years curator of the War Poets Collection. Funding comes from the Centre for Arts, Media and Culture and the Centre for Military Research, Education & Public Engagement.
This year the event is also the Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture, selected by the International Society for First World War Studies. Named after Dennis Showalter, the leading historian of Germany during the war and a longtime friend and supporter of the Society it is delivered each year by a leading early career researcher in First World War Studies. The event is held in the Rivers Suite at Edinburgh Napier University’s Craiglockhart Campus (Google map | travel info). There will be a wine reception from 5.30pm; the lecture will start around 6pm. The event will also be streamed online via Zoom. If you have any queries about the event, please contact Dr Andrew Frayn (a.frayn@napier.ac.uk). This event is both in person and online. If you wish to attend online, please buy an 'online Ticket'. Zoom information will be found in the email confirmations.
We are delighted to share the details for this year's Dennis Showalter Memorial Lecture 'Poetry under fire: what poems did during the First World War' to be delivered by @juliarsct.bsky.social on 11th Nov 2025
You can book to attend in person or online:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/remembranc... 🗃️
I rely a lot on the British library in my research, the effects of the cyberattack were devastating.
The Library staff helped the readers to get through it, delivering books to the reading rooms by hand and in million other ways. They are amazing and should be remunerated fairly for their job.
I became a member of the Society in 2018, at the time when I was only beginning to think about doing a PhD and it was the support and encouragement of the Society members, such as @chriskempshall.bsky.social and @vandawilcox.bsky.social, that convinced me that it was worth doing
It still feels a bit surreal, but I am very grateful to our members for trusting me with the role the President of the Society and am looking forward to productive and exciting three years ahead!
Only a month 'til the publication of “Framing the First World War: How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict”, edited by me, @mpmfinch.bsky.social & @dmorganowen.bsky.social!
US readers: get 30% discount (code: FRAMINGWWI) & free shipping if you order direct from @univpressofkansas.bsky.social
Now that I'm back home and (sort of) recovering from all the fun of last week, it might be time to do some reflecting on the conference itself and my time (as it draws to an end) as President of @fwwsoc.bsky.social 1/
Event poster for '“Like My Own”: Adopting Displaced Children after the Great War' with a collage of photos from the Bulgarian state archives
🔊 One week until this event with Prof. Theodora Dragostinova, who will examine the case of adopted and fostered refugee children in the Balkan borderlands.
Co-sponsored by @criticalchildhood.bsky.social
🗓️6 October at 5pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
The conference of @fwwsoc.bsky.social may be ended, but our trips around the Aegean continued. Some of us were in Lemnos, visiting the Allied cemeteries and sites
Extrait du programme du colloque de l'International Society for the First War Studies "Seas", du 1er au 3 octobre 2025 à l'université de Macédoine à Thessalonique 16-15 – 17-45 Panel 3. Presences and Absences in Writing about the Naval Aspects of the First World War Chair: Ellie Lemonidou (University of Patras) Jean de Preneuf (University of Lille, Service historique de la Défense) & Thomas Vaisset (University of Le Havre Normandy) Writing the History of the First World War at Sea: An Assessment of a Century of French Historiography David Monger (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) What is the Navy Doing? The Curious Absence of the Royal Navy in British First World War Propaganda Andrew Frayn (Edinburgh Napier University) The Silent Seas: Trawling for the Oceans in British Creative Texts About the First World War Connie Ruzich (Robert Morris University) Tides of War, Floods of Refugees, and First World War Poems of the Sea
Très heureux d'avoir présenté une communication consacrée aux évolutions de l'historiographie française de la guerre sur mer pendant la Première Guerre mondiale à l'occasion du colloque organisé par @fwwsoc.bsky.social à l'University of Macedonia
Closing out this year’s @fwwsoc.bsky.social’s conference in Thessaloniki with a guided tour of the Allied Military Cemetery at Zeitenlik. An appropriate end to an intense, enjoyable and educational few days.
📢 🧵 This year the International Society for First World War Studies @fwwsoc.bsky.social is hosting a conference in the University of Macedonia! If you can't attend in person, you can still take a look at the work that has been published in First World War Studies by some of this week's speakers.
After more than a year in the making, it is finally here! Check out the programme of the bi-annual Society conference dedicated to naval aspects of the First World War
The Program for our 11th conference, to be held at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki on 1-3 October 2025, is now available!
firstworldwarstudies.org/wp-content/u...
Another ERC CivilWars paper at ICCEES 2025. Gwendal Piègais @gwendalpiegais.bsky.social presenting his fascinating research on humanitarian efforts in Ukraine in 1918-1921.
@sdanisimova.bsky.social searches for the origin of the word intervention
@gwendalpiegais.bsky.social
#iccees2025
Chair is not mentioned in the programme, but it is going to be our own UCD @gwendalpiegais.bsky.social
If you are headed to ICCEES in London this week, come join us today at the panel on narratives of Russian Revolution at 14h25. I will be talking about whether we should use the term ‘intervention’ in connection with the Russian Civil War and if yes, then how.