Social and Labour History News

by Ariane Mak

 

« Il n’y avait pas de grèves pendant la guerre ! » Ce livre défie l’idée, solidement ancrée dans les représentations de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, d’une suspension des conflits sociaux au nom de la nécessaire unité nationale. De 1939 à 1945, le Royaume-Uni connaît plus de 7 000 grèves, la plupart dans l’industrie charbonnière. Qu’est-ce qu’implique la grève en temps de guerre ?

Faut-il être solidaire de la nation ou plutôt de la classe ouvrière ?

En revisitant les enquêtes ethnographiques réalisées au cœur des grèves par un institut de recherche, le Mass-Observation, Ariane Mak propose une analyse par le bas, à hauteur des mineurs et des communautés, des vies ouvrières en temps de guerre. La grève se dévoile dans les dépenses de la voisine chez l’épicier, au détour de plaisanteries échangées entre grévistes dans les pubs ou encore à travers les ragots transmis entre femmes sur le pas de la porte. L’ouvrage met en lumière l’articulation entre revendications salariales, rapports de genre, transmission familiale et fierté professionnelle. Le travail des enquêtrices et celui de l’historienne se font échos ici pour mieux éclairer un pan méconnu des luttes sociales du XXe siècle.

Trish Kahle, Georgetown University Qatar (trish.kahle@georgetown.edu)

Ewan Gibbs, University of Glasgow (ewan.gibbs@glasgow.ac.uk)

Electricity has transformed the modern world, but histories of the labor of electricity are few and far between. This special issue of International Labor and Working-Class History charts a new direction in the entangled histories of energy and labor by exploring the much-overlooked theme of labor within electric power systems in a global context.

Historians have long understood changes in the social organization of labor and class conflict as pivotal experiences in global history. Increasingly, they also understand energy transformations in a similar manner. Whilst energy history and labor history stand at a crucial interface, they have often failed to engage with each other, even—at times—obscuring each other. Outside a few well explored topics, like coal mining and, to a lesser extent, oil production, the labor of energy systems remains poorly understood. Electricity is perhaps the most understudied of all these areas, despite its global reach and centrality to histories of statecraft, international development, and technological change.

Since the emergence of commercial power generation in the late nineteenth century, electricity use has increased rapidly and unevenly. As electric intensification proceeded across the twentieth century, its generation and application transformed social and political relations. Electric infrastructure building projects helped forge contested visions of modernity. Systems of electricity supply emerged as domineering local, regional and national networks, dispersing electricity workers across countries, and furnishing systems of technological exchange across national borders.  

We seek to examine the relationships of work which made electric power systems operable. We define work broadly to include—for example—waged labor for electric companies and related industries, the mining and manufacture of electric power system components like wires, waged and unwaged labor in homes (and the forms of industrial and home economics education that shaped this labor), forms of unfree and coerced labor, the work of maintenance and repair, and the information and service labor of the power sector. This list is by no means exhaustive. By the nature of dispersed systems that stretched into the home but were also subject to the technological ambitions of national governments, electricity workers were subject to myriad connections. These extended beyond their employers, to the state and the citizenry and customers, often made direct and personal through systems of connection and collection. These dynamics create strong potential for social hierarchies of class, gender and race to shape the electricity sector in diverse contexts.

The special edition will integrate varying political and economic circumstances which shaped electricity labor across differing global contexts. We are keen to record examples from post-colonial, Global South, and socialist settings. While proposals from any region of the world will be considered, regions of particular interest include East Asia, South Asia, West Africa, and SWANA/MENA. Following a workshop on these themes, we are particularly interested in the following subjects:  

• Labor demands of varied system quality and maintaining supply
• Domestic and informal labor, both waged and unwaged
• Workers in renewable energies and supply chains, especially critical minerals
• Safety and danger as a contested facet of historical electricity labor
• Disconnection and living off-grid
• Electricity intensive forms of work 
• Cultural representations of electrical labor and electricity workers
• The labor of rural electrification 
• Parameters of essential labor and how it shapes and limits workplace mobilization

Please submit abstracts to the co-editors trish.kahle@georgetown.edu and ewan.gibbs@glasgow.ac.uk by October 1, 2025. A first draft of the essay (for internal review by the co-editors) will be due by February 1, 2026. Essays will also undergo doubly-anonymous peer-review through the journal. The special issue of ILWCH is slated to appear in early 2028. 

Contact Information

Please contact the issue co-editors, Trish Kahle, Georgetown University Qatar (trish.kahle@georgetown.edu) and Ewan Gibbs, University of Glasgow (ewan.gibbs@glasgow.ac.uk) with any questions. 

Contact Email trish.kahle@georgetown.edu

Rennes/France, 9-10 April 2026

The conference organised at Sciences Po Rennes (France) on 9-10 April 2026 will analyse the rise and limits of protest movements and social mobilizations related to the European project since the 1950s to the present day. It will consider both mobilisations in reaction to European policies (CAP, CFP, competition, trade, industrial, environmental policies) and integration processes (markets, EMU, Europe Union), and mobilisations calling for more Europe. The lack of focus on Europe in political and trade union mobilization strategies will also be explored.

Protest Movements and Social Mobilizations in European Integration History

The history of protest movements and social mobilizations in Europe and the history of European integration have long been written separately from each other and largely disconnected. Yet the construction of the European project has been debated very early on, leading to mobilizations from the 1950s to the present day. These mobilizations accompanied the process of economic, social and political convergence of European societies and helped to shape, redirect or accelerate it. This was the case from the first protests against the Common Agricultural Policy to the transnational environmental mobilizations of the 21st century, including movements of road hauliers and railway workers, and social conflicts such as the Renault-Vilvoorde strike and the demonstrations against the Bolkestein Directive. These mobilizations shaped the contours of a ‘Europe from below’, reflecting the growing role of civil society in European integration. They also contributed to the acceptance and legitimisation of European economic and social compromises.

The conference organised by the Jean Monnet Chair EU-CONV aims to make an interdisciplinary contribution to the current revival of the social history of the European project by analysing these various protests and mobilizations over the long term, from the 1950s to the present day. Sociology and political science have extensively explored the issue of the Europeanisation of collective action, focusing in particular on social movements, lobbies and interest groups since the 1980s and 1990s (DELLA PORTA/CAIANI, FILLIEULE/ACCORNERO, MARKS). They highlighted the growing importance of Europe in social movements (BALME/CHABANET, CRESPY, IMIG/TARROW) and the structural limits of this process, starting with the absence of a European public sphere (RUCHT). For its part, the comparative and transnational history of European protests and social movements (HORN, KLIMKE/SCHARLOTH) focused on a global approach that paid less attention to the European project. As a result, there is a lack of long-term approaches studying the rise and limits of protest movements and social mobilizations related to the European project since its origins. Most importantly, while movements and mobilizations are generally considered in terms of their own Europeanisation or their direct contribution to European debates, it seems important to also take into account the various mobilizations resulting from the different European policies and integration processes. European public policies or transnational industrial plans at EC/EU level provoked national or local mobilizations in response, but were also sometimes fostered by them. Similarly, the major processes of economic integration (Common/Single Market, EMU, enlargements), social integration (social and environmental Europe) and political integration (union of values) shaped national policies, indirectly giving rise to social mobilizations. This applies in particular to the processes of convergence of European societies towards a specific regulatory model of liberalism (liberalisation, external openness, competition, external constraint). Protest movements have also been privileged occasions for imagining Europe and proposing progressive or populist additions or alternatives to the European project under construction. Finally, the relatively low level of social mobilization in the strategies of collective actors, particularly political parties and trade unions, also deserves examination in order to understand the factors that explain this ‘absence of Europe’, but also the strong capacity of the European institutions to legitimise their action.

These issues open up a vast field of research, which will be delimited by a repertoire of collective action based on the notions of ‘protest movements’ and ‘social mobilizations’. While the social mobilizations studied here will mainly be protests, other types of mobilization, non-contesting and/or using other forms of collective action, will also be taken into consideration. These notions will be associated with a repertoire of action that goes beyond strict elitist lobbying by mobilizing broad social groups (demonstrations, strikes, petitions, occupations, blockades, collective meetings, symbolic collective actions, etc.). It will highlight the specific features of the repertoire of action related to European integration, as well as the preferred strategies for addressing ‘Brussels’. Analysing this repertoire will also lead to study the diversity of projects for Europe proposed by the various players involved in the actions. The scope will not be limited only to transnational mobilizations explicitly claiming a direct link with European integration. Specific attention will be paid to the role played by the European integration process in national or local mobilizations that have no explicit link with Europe, but for which Europe is an underestimated or even ignored factor.

The conference will examine the transformation of the European project as a breeding ground for protests and mobilizations by focusing on four main issues:

1) Direct reactions to Community policies (CAP, CFP, competition, industrial, transport, and trade policies) are the aspect of the subject that has been best highlighted. The focus will be placed on the process of Europeanisation and/or the transnational dimension of the movements over the long term, in particular in an evolutionary logic highlighting the major chronological phases in the history of the Communities (ECSC, Euratom, EEC, and EU) and the development of Community policies.

2) Indirect mobilizations or movements disconnected from European policies, but indirectly linked to the integration and convergence processes. Here we refer in particular to the enlargements and the multiple mobilizations that occurred during the phases of accession to the EC/EU. Contributions highlighting an indirect link between protest movements and the processes of economic and social convergence (Common/Single Market, EMS, EMU, and Stability Pact) will be particularly welcome.

3) Mobilizations promoting EC/EU projects or alternative projects in the economic, social, environmental or political fields. Specific attention will be paid to the emergence of social or political alternatives generated or supported by social mobilizations. Projects promoted by political movements, trade unions, and non-governmental organisations will be particularly scrutinised, but this will also be the case for projects promoted by the ‘new social movements’ (ecology, feminism, regionalism) to go beyond or bypass the national level.

4) The factors behind the ‘absence of Europe’ or the lack of social mobilizations to address European issues will also deserve clarification. This will be the case in particular for the strategies of the trade union organisations and of the main European political currents (communism, social democracy, nationalism). From another perspective, the underestimation of the Community scale in social mobilizations may also result from the fact that the European institutions present the social impact of their action as limited. The reactions of the EC/EU to protest movements and the processes of legitimisation that accompany them will also be analysed.

Priority will be given to contributions including an evolutionary and/or comparative and transnational dimension between several mobilizations, rather than case studies centred on a particular event. The aim is to highlight the gradual awareness or integration of the European dimension into social mobilizations.

Proposal submission
Proposals from all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences will be submitted in English (2000 characters maximum) with a short biography (one page maximum) to the address below. The submission deadline is 20 September 2025.

mathieu.dubois@sciencespo-rennes.fr

Conditions of participation
Confirmation of participation will be sent to participants in October 2025. The language of communication will be English. The Jean Monnet Chair will cover travel costs within Europe and accommodation in Rennes. A publication of the contributions will follow in a collective volume.

Scientific committee
Manuela CAIANI (Associate Professor in Political Science – Scuola Sup. Normale of Florence)
Amandine CRESPY (Professor in Political Science – Université libre of Brussels)
Gerd-Rainer HORN (Professor in History – Sciences Po Paris)
Lorenzo MECHI (Professor in History – University of Padua)
Kiran PATEL (Professor in History – Ludwig-Maximilian Universität – Munich)
Laurent WARLOUZET (Professor in History – Sorbonne Université – Paris)

Conference organization
Mathieu DUBOIS, Associate Prof. in History at Sciences Po Rennes, Jean Monnet Chair Holder
mathieu.dubois@sciencespo-rennes.fr

Kontakt

mathieu.dubois@sciencespo-rennes.fr

It is our pleasure to share with you the promising range of papers that successfully made it into our roster for the Madeira conference on "Women and Health in the 19th-Century Transatlantic World" (Dec. 4-6).

We would now like to solicit responses for these papers. Please propose your responses by July 25 at the latest.

Women and Health in the 19th-Century Transatlantic World

Call for Responses for the 5th Crosscurrents Conference—Women and Health in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic World

4 - 6 December 2025; Venue: University of Madeira – Rectory Building (Madeira Island, Portugal)

Organised by Intercontinental Cross-Currents Network and University of Madeira, Faculty of Arts and Humanities - Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

We welcome response proposals addressing the main themes of the accepted individual papers, which can be found on our website (https://crosscurrents.uni-halle.de/2025-conference/).

Each response proposal should engage directly and substantively with only ONE of the accepted individual papers. We encourage response proposals that focus on:

- Constructively critiquing arguments, methods, or conclusions.
- Suggesting extensions (research, applications, theory).
- Discussing broader implications and contexts.
- Raising key questions or identifying tensions for future study.

Also, your response should enhance the transatlantic and transnational scope of the original paper.

Your response proposal should include:

- A 150-word abstract of the proposed response (rough collection of potential ideas suffices).
- A brief biography (150 words), including the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information.

Responses should last 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the number of contributors.

Please submit your response proposal to crosscurrents@amerikanistik.uni-halle.de by July 25, 2025, with the subject line: “Response – Women’s Health Conference.”

Kontakt

crosscurrents@amerikanistik.uni-halle.de

publié par Lisa Caliste

Produire, échanger, consommer : ce triptyque est au cœur d’un renouvellement de la recherche sur l’histoire du travail dans les campagnes médiévales. S’inscrivant dans cette dynamique, l’ouvrage restitue une enquête sur un territoire, le Lodévois, au XVe siècle, menée au plus près des sources notariées. Si la draperie est l’activité majeure de cet arrière-pays languedocien, petites villes et bourgs sont marqués par la variété des industries et par la pluriactivité des hommes. Certains sont en capacité de faire circuler des capitaux et de mobiliser des réseaux, autant de caractéristiques de l’entreprise médiévale. Leurs initiatives participent d’un système de marchés emboîtés reliant le Lodévois aux grandes places marchandes de l’époque.

Toutes les informations nécessaires en suivant le lien ci-dessous:

https://classiques-garnier.com/l-industrie-en-lodevois-des-ateliers-des-marches-et-des-hommes-xve-siecle.html

Reihe

luxemburg beiträge

Autor*innen

Wolfgang Hien, Kolja Huth, Mario Keßler, Ansgar Martins, Holger Politt, Yuval Rubovitch, Jörn Schütrumpf, Reiner Tosstorff, Alexander Friedman, Lutz Brangsch, Bernd-Rainer Barth, Yves Müller, Florian Weis, Christoph Jünke, Magda Albrecht , Alexander Karschnia, Ingar Solty

Herausgeber*innen

Riccardo Altieri, Bernd Hüttner, Florian Weis

 

Link: https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/53564

 

«Die jüdische mit der allgemeinen proletarischen Bewegung zu vereinen» ist – in Anlehnung an einen programmatischen Artikel des Allgemeinen Jüdischen Arbeiterbundes (kurz: «Bund») aus den 1920er-Jahren – der Titel der luxemburg beiträge zu «Jüdinnen und Juden in der internationalen Linken», die wir 2021 veröffentlichten, ohne zu wissen, dass daraus eine ganze Reihe mit vier weiteren Bänden entstehen würde. 

Der erste Band stellt politische Strömungen und Organisationen (den Linkszionismus und den «Bund»), das jüdisch-linke Wirken in einzelnen Ländern bzw. Regionen (Südafrika, Großbritannien und Frankfurt am Main) sowie Persönlichkeiten (Rosa Luxemburg, Jürgen Kuczynski, Jakob Moneta und Theodor Bergmann) vor. 

Der zweite Band aus dem Jahr 2022 ist mit einem Zitat aus einem Interview mit Gregor Gysi überschrieben: «Wenn du ausgegrenzt wirst, gehst du zu anderen Ausgegrenzten ».2 In den 17 Beiträgen werden vor allem jüdisch-sozialistische Persönlichkeiten porträtiert, darunter Luise Kautsky und Mathilde Jacob, die Bundisten Henryk Erlich und Wiktor Alter, der Schriftsteller Lew Kopelew und andere. Der Beitrag von Reiner Tosstorff ist darüber hinaus dem Jüdischen Antifaschistischen Komitee gewidmet.

2023 legten wir einen dritten Band mit dem Titel «Die Arbeiter*innenbewegung als Emanzipationsraum» vor, in dem Beiträge zu «Aschkenasim – Sephardim – Mizrachim », zum Osmanischen Reich und Griechenland, Marokko und Tunesien sowie Österreich bzw. Österreich-Ungarn enthalten sind.3 Weitere Texte widmen sich Jüdinnen und Juden in linken Hochschulgruppen in der Weimarer Republik, dem internationalen Trotzkismus sowie exemplarisch dem US-amerikanischen Politiker, Publizisten und (zeitweiligen) Trotzkisten Max Shachtman, dem Labour-Politiker Ian Mikardo, dem Schriftsteller Jean Améry und der Neuen Linken in Frankreich. 

Der 2024 veröffentlichte vierte Band «‹Zog nit keyn mol, as Du geyst dem letsten Veg. Mir zaynen do!›»4 wird von einem Interview mit dem damaligen Ministerpräsidenten von Thüringen und jetzigen Vizepräsidenten des Deutschen Bundestags, Bodo Ramelow, eröffnet und mit einem Gespräch mit der Wiener Sängerin und Aktivistin Isabel Frey beschlossen. Viele Beiträge thematisieren die Lebenswege von linken Jüdinnen und Juden, die – aus Haft, Untergrund und Emigration zurückgekehrt – die Sowjetische Besatzungszone bzw. die DDR wählten, weil sie dort auf einen konsequent antifaschistischen und sozialistischen Neuaufbau setzten. Weitere Beiträge widmen sich beispielsweise Moses Hess, Esther Bejarano und dem jüdischen Widerstand gegen die Nazis in Polen, dem heutigen Belarus und in Deutschland.

Nichtjüdische Juden: Themen und Personen des neuen Bandes

In jedem der bisherigen Bände unserer Reihe haben wir den einprägsamen Begriff des «nichtjüdischen Juden» von Isaac Deutscher zitiert und aufgegriffen – nur haben wir diesen wichtigen Trotzki-Biografen und frühen Stalin-Gegner bislang nicht vorgestellt. Diese Lücke schließen wir nun mit dem vorliegenden Band, in dem Reiner Tosstorff in einem Kurzporträt Isaac Deutscher vorstellt, der unser Verständnis der Geschichte des Kommunismus maßgeblich geprägt hat, wie Tosstorff hervorhebt.

Fast 50 Autor*innen und drei Gesprächspartner* innen haben insgesamt über 70 Beiträge zu unserer Reihe beigesteuert. Ihnen möchten wir an dieser Stelle einen herzlichen Dank aussprechen! Gleichermaßen möchten wir auch all denjenigen danken, die diese fünf Bände durch ihre Arbeit erst ermöglicht haben, sei es durch Anregungen und kritische Anmerkungen, sei es in der Transkription, dem Lektorat, dem Layout und schließlich der Verbreitung des Materials. 

Wir freuen uns über die Möglichkeit, einzelne Aspekte aus dieser Reihe mit Interessierten in öffentlichen Veranstaltungen zu erörtern, wie wir es in der Vergangenheit beispielsweise in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Erfurt und Zürich tun konnten und in vielen weiteren Orten in nächster Zeit mit unterschiedlichen Kooperationspartner* innen und wechselnden Referent* innen tun werden. Gern stehen wir für weitere Vorstellungen und Gespräche zur Verfügung.

Die Herausgeber

Riccardo Altieri ist Historiker und promovierte nach dem Studium der Geschichte und Germanistik 2021 an der Universität Potsdam zu «Rosi Wolfstein und Paul Frölich. Transnationale Linke des 20. Jahrhunderts». Altieri forscht auf den Gebieten unterfränkisches Judentum, historische Arbeiterbewegung und Klassismus. Er leitet das Johanna-Stahl-Zentrum für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur in Unterfranken in Würzburg. Zuletzt erschien «Johanna Stahl. Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin – Politikerin – Frauenrechtlerin» (2022).

Bernd Hüttner ist Politikwissenschaftler und lebt in Bremen. Er ist Referent für Zeitgeschichte und Geschichtspolitik und Koordinator des Gesprächskreises «Geschichte» der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. Er ist unter anderem Mitglied des Vorstandes der German Labour History Association und der Redaktion von Arbeit – Bewegung – Geschichte. Zeitschrift für historische Studien. Zu seinen Interessensgebieten gehören emanzipatorische historische Bildung, Intersektionalität, Kunstgeschichte und neue soziale Bewegungen. Seine Webseite mit Publikationsverzeichnis ist unter www.bernd-huettner.de zu finden.

Florian Weis ist Historiker mit Schwerpunkten zur neueren und neuesten britischen und deutschen Geschichte (Promotion 1998 zu «‹And now – win the Peace›. Nachkriegsplanungen der Labour Party»). Er arbeitet seit 1999 in verschiedenen Funktionen in der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung und ist dort gegenwärtig Co-Leiter der Gesprächskreise «Antisemitismus/jüdisch-linke Geschichte und Gegenwart» sowie «Klassen und Sozialstruktur».

The 2025 General Conference of WORKLAB – International Association of Labour Museums – will take place in Hamburg, hosted by the Museum der Arbeit from 5–7 November. This year’s theme is:

Workers’ Culture

In an era of growing social and economic inequality, the cultural heritage of working people remains a powerful and necessary part of our collective memory. Workers’ culture—from songs and rituals to union banners, tools, and everyday practices—offers insight into identity, solidarity, resistance, and creativity. It reflects how working people have made meaning in their lives across different historical periods, geographies, and political contexts.

The conference invites museum professionals, curators, researchers, archivists, and cultural practitioners to explore how museums and heritage institutions collect, preserve, interpret, and communicate workers’ culture—and how they can play a role in empowering communities and advancing museum practice today.

Call for Papers

We welcome proposals for papers and workshops on topics including, but not limited to:

• Interpreting workers’ material culture: banners, badges, tools, union ephemera, and publications

• Preserving immaterial culture: songs, stories, and oral histories
• Artist–worker–community collaborations
• Cultural expressions shaped by gendered experiences and LGBTQ workers
• Labour migration and transnational narratives
• Museums as spaces for democratic engagement and cultural memory

Submissions from museum professionals, researchers, activists, artists, and interdisciplinary contributors are encouraged.

Deadline for proposals: Monday, 25 August 2025

Send your proposal to Dr. Sandra Schürmann, sandra.schuermann@mda.shmh.de.

Join us in Hamburg

The WORKLAB 2025 conference will bring together members of our network and guests from across Europe and beyond for two days of presentations, workshops, and discussion. Participants will also have the opportunity to explore the Museum der Arbeit and connect with colleagues working at the intersection of labour history, museology, and cultural practice.

Registration opens in September 2025.

Rouen/France

Pour la deuxième année consécutive se tient le séminaire « Les marxismes dans l’histoire ». L’histoire des marxismes a connu depuis quelques années de multiples renouvellements. A distance de l’opprobre consécutif à l’effondrement de l’Union soviétique comme de l’apologie « marxiste-léniniste » qui avait forgé un dogme marginalisant toute approche critique, les recherches autour de Marx et des marxismes connaissent une certaine dynamique depuis une dizaine d’années, notamment dans le monde anglophone mais aussi dans plusieurs pays, dont la France. Ce séminaire pluridisciplinaire entend y prendre part, en mobilisant des chercheurs français et étrangers investis dans ce domaine. Les différentes séances sont construites autour d’une thématique, en rapport avec les fonds d’archives conservés à l’Imec. Elles visent à interroger l’histoire intellectuelle et des pensées critiques à partir de Marx.

 

Hors des étudiants de l’université de Rouen Normandie, l’inscription est obligatoire pour venir assister sur place ou pour suivre à distance reservation@imec-archives.com

 

PROGRAMME

27 Juin 2025. Lexiques de Marx : la revue Études de marxologie (1959-1994) Journée d’étude consacrée à la revue Études de marxologie dirigée par Maximilien Rubel. Organisée en partenariat avec l’ISMEA .

 

13h30 - Ouverture Les marxismes en revue (François Bordes et Jean-Numa Ducange)

13h45 - Éric Sevault, L'inspiration éditoriale des "Études de marxologie"

14h15 - Louis Janover, grand témoin

14h45 – pause

15h - Jean-Louis Perrault, Perroux, le marxisme et les "Études de marxologie"

15h30 - Julien Chuzeville, Maximilien Rubel historien 16h Conclusions et perspectives

 

Organisateurs : Jean-Numa Ducange (Professeur d’histoire contemporaine, Université de Rouen Normandie et IUF) et François Bordes (Docteur en histoire contemporaine du CHSP, Directeur de la recherche à l’Imec).

Institutions partenaires : Université de Rouen Normandie (GRHIS et IRIHS), Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine, Institut Universitaire de France.

 

 Restant à votre disposition pour toute information complémentaire, François Delisle

--

IE en production et analyse de données

Groupe de Recherche Histoire (UR 3831)

Université de Rouen Normandie

New York African Studies Association (NYASA): An Association for the Study of Africa and its Diaspora; The Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies (CGIS), State University of New York, Cortland, Cortland, 6-9 November 2025 Resistance and Resilience: Resource Extraction, Arms Trade, and Militarism in Africa and the Global South

New York African Studies Association (NYASA): An Association for the Study of Africa and its Diaspora and The Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies (CGIS), State University of New York, Cortland invite you to the NYASA 47th ANNUAL CONFERENCE on November 7 – 8, 2025 "Resistance and Resilience: Resource Extraction, Arms Trade, and Militarism in Africa and the Global South".

Resistance and Resilience: Resource Extraction, Arms Trade, and Militarism in Africa and the Global South

The consolidation of democratic rule on the African continent has faced significant challenges because of militarization driven or shaped by both internal and external actors. The seeds of this militarism were the violent struggles during colonization and the “Cold War” global interests that resulted in hot wars on the continent. For example, independent African countries such as Angola fought protracted internal wars shaped and fueled by Cold War geopolitics. On the eve of Africa’s political independence, European powers negotiated agreements that allowed them to maintain iron-grip control over the security apparatuses of African nations ensuring that African soldiers were trained according to Europe’s military doctrines. For instance, The Anglo Nigerian Defense Pact of 1960 and the Franco-Ivorian Defense Agreement of 1961 had provisions for both military training and the presence of British military bases in Nigeria and French military bases in Côte d’Ivoire.

In the post-9/11 period, the United States sought to expand its military footprint on the continent under the guise of fighting terrorism and narco-trafficking. According to United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokesperson John Manley in 2020, the U.S. has an archipelago of 15 “enduring locations” and 12 less-permanent “contingency locations” in Africa. In addition to officially recognized bases such as Camp Lemonnier situated next to Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport, the US also has secret military outposts across the continent, often in disregard of the sovereignty of African nations.

Not to be outranked on the continent is China’s growing military influence. In 2017, China established its first military base in Africa in Djibouti, near Camp Lemonnier, to support its regional naval operations. China as well as Russia are significant suppliers of military arms to the continent. Once again, the heightened interests of the different Superpowers on the continent are turning Africa into a proxy battleground, similar to the former Cold War dynamics.

The militarization of the continent has severe consequences. It has destabilized and continues to destabilize many nations creating economic hardships thereby spurring both internal migrations and the migration of African people to Europe, the United States, Israel, Asia, and other locations. These foreign interventions along with continuing conflicts on the continent enable the untaxed extraction of African resources, the undermining of local leadership, and the erosion of both African democratic institutions and democratic aspirations.

NYASA: Association for the Study of Africa and its Diaspora invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to submit abstracts for papers and panels for its upcoming conference on the theme of Resistance and Resilience: Resource Extraction, Arms Trade, and Militarism in Africa and the Global South. Working under a broad definition of “militarism” that includes not only the above but also militaristic aspects in news reports, propaganda, literature, film, immigration, gender roles, class distinctions, health, technology, and all other areas of life and culture, this conference aims critically to examine the effects of militarism’s historical, political, economic, and social dimensions in Africa and the Global South on democracy, sovereignty, human security, and other areas important to Africa today and tomorrow.

Additionally, scholars are invited to submit papers on topics not directly focusing on NYASA’s 2025 theme of Resistance and Resilience: Resource Extraction, Arms Trade, and Militarism in Africa and the Global South. For example:
* Archeology of African Civilizations
* Social Sciences in Africa and its Diaspora
* Humanities in Africa and its Diaspora
* Cinema/ Nollywood in Africa and its Diaspora
* Children’s Literature in Africa and its Diaspora
* Representing Africa in Literature, Film, Photos, News
* Women/ Gender/ LGBTQIA+ Studies and issues (lived lives) in Africa and its Diaspora
* African and Heritage Architecture in Africa and its Diaspora
* Medicine / Health in Africa and its Diaspora
* NGOs (e.g., Doctors Without Borders) in Africa
* Mental Health and Trauma in Africa and its Diaspora
* Religions / Spirituality in Africa and its Diaspora
* Information Technologies/ AI and LLM (Large Language Models) in Africa and its Diaspora
* Law Enforcement/ Prison Industrial Complex in Africa and its Diaspora
* Justice in Africa (e.g., South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Reconciliation in Rwanda, Distributive Justice, Reparations, Debt Forgiveness)
* Nations, nationalism, borders, resources (e.g., multi-nation rivers) in Africa
* Genocide Studies in Africa and its Diaspora
* African organizations in Africa and its Diaspora (including regional, pan-African, and global coalition building)
* Symbols and Heritage in Africa and its Diaspora
*Environment / Sustainability / Ecophilosophies / Environmental Organizations in Africa and its Diaspora
* African landscapes
* Origins of Black Studies
* The Intellectual Traditions of Black Studies
* Philosophies and Activism of Black Studies
* The State of Black Studies in K – 12 Education
* Black Studies of the Future—the Remainder of the 21st Century
* Black Studies and Language Challenges

Other topics for papers will be considered—please submit your proposal. Proposals for promoting student participation are especially welcome.

NYASA, founded in 1967 as the SUNY African Studies Faculty Association, is a nonprofit membership association (incorporated as NYASA in 1975) dedicated to advancing the discipline of Africana Studies. NYASA is open to all with an interest in Africa and Africa’s Diaspora. As a regional organization, the New York African Studies Association promotes the visibility and advancement of the discipline in New York (and surrounding) States, offers opportunities for scholarly and professional development of educators, and provides enhanced education for community members, leaders, and activists.

Submission Guidelines:
● Abstracts should be 300 words or less and clearly state the research question, methodology, and expected arguments/findings.
● Please include a brief bio (150 words) with your submission.
● Submit abstracts via the conference website: www.nyasacortland.org

We encourage submissions from scholars across disciplines, including history, political science, literature, language, the arts, anthropology, sociology, economics, and international relations. We also welcome contributions from practitioners working in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and humanitarian assistance. NYASA also welcomes artists and performers.

The conference will occur at the State University of New York, Cortland, November 6 to 9, 2025 (the conference proper on 7-8 November and Pre-conference events on November 6 and Post-conference events on November 9).

NYASA has a long and ongoing commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment for scholarly exchange and dialogue. We particularly encourage submissions from scholars based in Africa and from underrepresented groups. We look forward to hearing from you!

Contact Information
Prof. Bekeh Ukelina
SUNY - Cortland
Graham Avenue
Cortland, NY 13045
nyasacortland@gmail.com

University of Rochester/United States, 16-17 April 2026 Climate Havens: Humanistic Perspectives on Resilience, Migration, and Resources Symposium

We invite papers and forums/conversations proposals for the symposium Climate Havens: Humanistic Perspectives on Resilience, Migration, Community, and Resources from scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

Climate Havens: Humanistic Perspectives on Resilience, Migration, and Resources Symposium

As climate risks intensify, the idea of “climate havens”—and the identification of regions like the Great Lakes as more resilient to environmental change—raises pressing questions about space, belonging, justice, resources, and community. This symposium will explore climate havens through historical, philosophical, artistic, literary, and cultural perspectives, organized around three central themes:

1. What Is a Haven?
This theme invites scholars to explore the idea of a haven as a place of collective refuge and communal resilience in an increasingly unstable world. How have havens been imagined during times of crisis, migration, or disaster throughout history, literature, art, and philosophy? What does it mean for a place to serve as a haven not just for individuals, but for communities seeking belonging, healing, and safety? How do havens inspire new forms of care, kinship, and solidarity?

2. Whose Haven Is It?
This theme examines the ethical and social dimensions of climate havens. Who is able to seek refuge in climate-resilient regions—and who is excluded? How do race, gender, class, and histories of dispossession shape who is welcomed, who is displaced, and who gets to participate in defining community? What happens to existing communities when newcomers arrive? We invite papers that explore how places of refuge are negotiated, contested, and reconstituted in the face of migration, inequality, and climate-driven change.

3. Climate Havens and Natural Resources
This theme focuses on the role of ecosystems and natural resources in shaping climate havens, with special attention to regions like the Great Lakes. How can sustainable management of water, land, and other resources support the development of just and resilient communities? How might Indigenous, local, and historical knowledge guide community-based approaches to ecological care and governance? We invite contributions that address the balance between environmental sustainability, human experience, and resource management in climate-resilient areas.

We are particularly interested in papers focusing on the Great Lakes region and addressing (but not limited to) the following topics and themes:
- Historical perspectives on havens and migration, including climate migration
- Social and political dimensions of water resources
- Indigenous knowledge and stewardship
- Environmental ethics and justice
- Gendered perspectives on havens/climate havens
- Narratives of home, belonging, and displacement
- Urbanization, migration, and planning for climate havens
- Cultural and ecological loss in climate migration
- "Slow disaster" and its relationship to climate migration

The symposium will be held across two days, with day 1 convening at the University of Rochester and day 2 at the Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY)

We welcome submissions in the form of traditional papers as well as discussant-led interactive forums or guided conversations that engage with the proposed themes

Submission deadline: August 15 (applicants will be notified by September 30th)

Please submit your questions and papers to humanities@rochester.edu.

Selected papers will be considered for publication in an edited volume with the University of Rochester Press in the “Humanities in the World” Series https://www.sas.rochester.edu/humanities/programs/humanities-in-the-world.html

Presenters whose papers are selected for the symposium will receive small travel stipends, based on need; lodging and meals will be provided.

Contact Information
Tanya Bakhmetyeva, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Humanities Center
Professor of Instruction, Department of History
Professor, Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, University of Rochester
Co-editor, “The Humanities in the World” series, University of Rochester Press

Masaryk Institute and Archives, Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague/Czech Republic, 19-20 November 2025 Migrant Work beyond Categorization: Migrants and Refugees at Work in the 20th-Century East Central Europe

This workshop seeks to extend the scholarly debates on work in various migrant and refugee contexts. It focuses on the 20th-century East Central Europe as both a region of substantial emigration and immigration.

Migrant Work beyond Categorization: Migrants and Refugees at Work in the 20th-Century East Central Europe

The workshop is organized by the project “Migration and Us: Mobility, Refugeedom and Border from the Humanities Perspective (MyGRACE)“, registration number CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008741, supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic within the Jan Amos Komenský Operational Programme (OP JAK), and co-financed by the European Union.

The separation of refugees from other migrants into a distinct legal category manifested in the institutional and administrative practice of refugee protection and its narrative framing. Accomplished by the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and reasserted in the following decades by the growing number of signatories, thus featuring in international and national refugee law, our understanding of who refugees are has endowed them with a set of civil, social, and political rights. However, conditioning refugee protection on the grounds of persecution “for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,” the contemporary definition of refugees also bears implications for conceptualizing other migrations, including economic migration.

This workshop seeks to extend the scholarly debates on work in various migrant and refugee contexts. It focuses on the 20th-century East Central Europe as both a region of substantial emigration and immigration, yet, until recently, evading the academic spotlight. The workshop strives to explore the various motivations of people on the move, including social and economic reasons, reflecting their more and less voluntary choices. Conceptually, it thus advocates for bringing refugee and migration studies closer together and encourages a more inclusive analysis of migrant and refugee situations. First, it recognizes the impracticability of separating economic reasons for migration from political ones. Second, it highlights the essential role of labor integration and social welfare in refugeedom, both as an initial motive and a solution to the refugee situation.

A thriving concept in economic, legal, and social sciences as well as humanities, labor migration in historical research across periods (partial research notwithstanding) has not yet been appreciated in all its meanings, particularly relating to East Central Europe. Traditionally perceived as economically underdeveloped and subject to political upheaval, the region has rarely been depicted as offering new beginnings and attractive opportunities. Still, East Central Europe has not only produced migrants and refugees, but also provided space for their settlement and integration under various conditions, less or more equal with regard to citizens and other inhabitants.

Considering diverse local, national, and transnational situations, political settings, and migration and refugee regimes, the workshop aims to investigate the meanings and value of work – economic, political, social, and ideological – in the individual and group experiences of migrants and refugees and the receiving societies. Furthermore, it strives to uncover how these were permeated with their formal and informal status, citizenship agendas, existing hierarchies of ethnicity, class, and political persuasion, and personal and collective identities, and, finally, how they were translated into political, social, and civil rights in everyday practice.
We invite papers by historians, social and political scientists, and from other disciplines, discussing their research relating to the 20th-century East Central Europe that is focused on, but not limited to, the following facets of work in the context of migration and refugeedom:

- What role did labor play in the 20th-century experiences of migration and refugeedom in this region?
- How can different sources (archives, literature, press, egodocuments, etc) and various levels of analysis (including the emphasis on personal agency) influence our perception of such labor-related migrant and refugee situations?
- What theoretical and methodological implications does the categorization of migrants and various refugee definitions bring up in historical research?
- Historically, how did such categorization influence the status and rights of migrating groups and individuals?
- Can a more integrative history of labor migration in East Central Europe challenge the Western-oriented perspective?

Paper proposals (max. 250 words) and short bios (200 words), as well as any questions, should be directed to Nikola Tohma (tohma@mua.cas.cz).

Submission deadline: 31 July 2025

The decision on acceptance will be communicated by the end of August. The organizers will offer financial support for travel and accommodation.

Kontakt

tohma@mua.cas.cz

AI and Global Challenges. Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Meet Global Challenges Organizer: Jaimee Stuart, Ronald Musizvingoza (Emerging Media (Journal)) Host: Emerging Media (Journal) Country: United States Takes place: Digital Date: 01.07.2025 Deadline: 01.07.2025 Website: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/emmed   By Connections Redaktion, Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics, Universität Leipzig

This special issue seeks submissions that explore the role of AI in addressing global challenges, examining its potential to drive progress and the complications it introduces in meeting complex or wicked problems. We seek submissions that not only reflect on the insights from the conference but also expand upon them, offering fresh perspectives and analyses, innovative solutions and forward-thinking strategies.

AI and Global Challenges. Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Meet Global Challenges

Emerging Media is a SAGE open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The journal focuses on the exploration of the emerging issues and future development in the field of media and communication, both theoretically and practically. This journal will publish interdisciplinary research articles and leading trend discussions, particularly in conjunction with the field of artificial intelligence (AI), information and communication technologies (ICTs), new media application, computer science, mobile technology, user experience design, data science, aesthetics, ethical and cultural studies, as well as social and psychological perspectives. In addition, this journal is open to a diversity of theoretical paradigms and methodologies. The Journal will include high-quality work from the international community of scholars across the domain of relevant disciplines, free from any specific schools and/or particular paradigms. The Journal will avoid bias relating to age, gender identity, race, religion, and the like. In general, the scope of the journal includes the following three intertwined aspects: (1) media and technology; (2) industry and management; and (3) society and culture.

All accepted articles will be published OnlineFirst rapidly after acceptance and final editing. All articles are published Open Access without any APCs.

Guest Editors:

Jaimee Stuart, United Nations University Institute in Macau (UNU Macau)
Ronald Musizvingoza, United Nations University Institute in Macau (UNU Macau)

Description:

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) hold the potential to transform development and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but AI also poses novel risks in meeting global challenges. To explore these issues, the United Nations University Institute in Macau (UNU Macau) convened a conference on April 25th, 2024, on the topic of AI for All: Bridging Divides, Building a Sustainable Future. Following the UNU Macau AI Conference 2024's theme of "AI for All" we seek submissions for a special issue that reflects the conference's comprehensive discussions on creating a sustainable future by utilizing AI to bridge divides across the Global South and Global North as well as the cultural East and West.

This special issue seeks submissions that explore the role of AI in addressing global challenges, examining its potential to drive progress and the complications it introduces in meeting complex or wicked problems. We seek submissions that not only reflect on the insights from the conference but also expand upon them, offering fresh perspectives and analyses, innovative solutions and forward-thinking strategies.

Key Content:

The special issue will cover a range of topics that reflect the conference’s thematic pillars, including but not limited to:

- AI for Sustainable Development: Investigating how AI can be leveraged to address global challenges, promote sustainability, and enhance social equity in alignment with the SDGs.
- AI in Healthcare: Exploring AI’s role in advancing medical research, diagnostics and treatment, while addressing privacy and ethical concerns.
- AI and Education: Assessing AI’s potential to support teaching and learning and its implications on educational systems.
- Ethical AI: Examining ethical considerations concerning the design and deployment of AI including bias, accountability, and transparency.
- AI Governance: Analyzing how AI can enhance public services and policymaking, alongside potential risks such as surveillance and decision-making autonomy.
- AI Technologies and Innovations: Highlighting the latest advancements and real-world applications of AI in various fields, including IoT, legal systems, and complex systems modeling.
- AI and Gender Equality: Critically examining AI systems and their link to gender equality.

Submission Process:

Submissions should be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Interested authors should submit their full papers directly to the journal submission website below and select the special issue "AI and Global Challenged". Full papers will be published online-first on a rolling basis soon after acceptance. The journal offers full Open Access for submissions selected to the special issue without any Article Processing Charges (APCs).

Submission website: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/emmed

Submission deadline: 1 July 2025

Articles:

The special issue welcomes:

- Original research articles up to 10,000 words (including abstract, acknowledgments, references, tables, figures, and conflict of interest statement).
- Both empirical and conceptual papers are welcomed. All original research papers will undergo a rigorous, double-blind peer-review process, ensuring the highest standards of academic excellence.
- Colloquium papers between 3000 to 5000 words that offer opinion or op-ed style contributions in an organized discussion with academic or practical insights. Colloquium articles will be reviewed by the editorial team.
- Book reviews up to 3000 words that provide a brief evaluation of a published book on emerging media and communication associated with AI, providing our readers with an engaging discussion of the work. Book reviews will be reviewed by the editorial team.

Publication on Emerging Media is free of charge, no article processing fees.

Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina/United States, 29-31 May 2026

All Men Are Created Equal: Freedom, Slavery, and Race in the American Revolution

The Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) invites proposals for papers to be presented at its Seventeenth Annual Conference on the American Revolution. 

The conference will examine the experiences of African American people and the ideologies of freedom, slavery, and race in the War for American Independence and the founding of the United States. The SAR, as part of its Congressional mandate to encourage historical research, is sponsoring this conference in alliance with Wake Forest University.

In his 1776 essay Liberty Further Extended, Lemuel Haynes denied that “Liberty is so contracted a principle as to be Confin’d to any nation under Heaven; nay, I think it not hyperbolical to affirm, that Even an African, has Equally as good a right to his Liberty in common with Englishmen.” This Black patriot and soldier connected freedom, citizenship, and nation. How actors in the American Revolution experienced, articulated, or contested these ideas is the question that drives this conference.

The conference intends to examine perspectives from Black and White men and women aligned with the Patriots or Loyalists. We also invite comparisons between the young United States and the broader revolutionary Atlantic World.

The SAR invites proposals based on new research from graduate students, established scholars, and public history practitioners. 

Proposals should include a 250-word abstract introducing the author’s research and how their topic advances our field. Please include a short (two-page) vita. 

Submit proposals by October 1, 2025 to John Ruddiman, Department of History, Wake Forest University at Ruddimja@wfu.edu with the subject line “2026 SAR Conference.” Acceptances will be sent by early December 2025.

The SAR anticipates publication of the accepted, revised papers in an edited volume. To facilitate that, participants will submit their papers (approximately 5,000-6,000 words) for pre-circulation by May 1, 2026.

The SAR will offer a $500 honorarium and cover presenters’ travel and lodging expenses.

The 2026 SAR Annual Conference will honor Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. The SAR recognizes her distinguished scholarship and public service in history, especially to the histories of race, slavery, and the pursuit of dignity and liberty in the Revolutionary generation.

Contact Information

John Ruddiman
Wake Forest University

Konstanz/Germany

Global intellectual history is an emerging subfield within Global History, distinguished by its focus on intellectual developments beyond traditional Western narratives. Historically, intellectual history has primarily centred on canonical European thinkers, leaving a significant gap in the inclusion of non-Western perspectives, particularly from Africa. The workshop seeks to fill this gap by compiling a reader of original documents by African intellectuals and personalities from the 18th to the 20th centuries, to be selected and commented by a team of historians from Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

African Voices in Global Intellectual History

Global intellectual history is an emerging subfield within Global History, distinguished by its focus on intellectual developments beyond traditional Western narratives. Historically, intellectual history has primarily centred on canonical European thinkers, leaving a significant gap in the inclusion of non-Western perspectives, particularly from Africa. Recent scholarship has begun to address this by examining intellectual traditions across diverse global contexts. However, African voices, especially those beyond typical themes like nationalism and anti-colonialism, remain underrepresented.

The workshop seeks to address this gap by compiling a reader of original documents from African intellectuals and personalities from the 18th to the 20th centuries, to be selected and commented by historians from Europe, Africa, and the United States. The anthology will include a wide range of African perspectives, including voices from Sub-Saharan Africa and the African diaspora, to broaden the dialogue within global intellectual history. The selection will focus on expanding the traditional intellectual canon to include less commonly recognized figures, reinterpreting well-known African intellectuals through the lens of classical intellectual history themes, and increasing the representation of female voices. Additionally, the reader will also feature documents in African languages, ensuring a linguistically diverse representation.

Thematically, the anthology will address four key aspects: dealing with Europe, development, difference, and (un)freedom. These themes will explore African intellectuals’ engagement with imaginations of Europe as well as European experiences, concepts of development and civilization, and various forms of social and cultural differences, while also reflecting on discourses of freedom and the lack of it in Africa. By focusing on these themes, the project aims to challenge dated dichotomies in African history and contribute to the ongoing effort to integrate African perspectives into global intellectual history. Through this work, the anthology seeks to offer a richer, more nuanced understanding of Africa’s intellectual contributions and to encourage further research in this underexplored area.

Programm

Monday, 23 June

2 pm Welcome and Introduction
Mary Owusu and Martin Rempe

2.30 pm (Un)Freedom, Community, and Civilization

José Ligna Nafafé, Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century
Paola Vargas Arana, Africa is the Guts of my Body: Maroon Epistemologies in African Intellectual History
Martin Rempe, On Civilization: Edward W. Blyden’s African Life and Customs

Coffee break

04.30 pm Feminism

Joana Serrado, Ain’t I a Woman/Philosopher Too? The Transatlantic Enlightenment of Rosa Maria “Egipciaca” (c. 1719–1771)
Mary Afolabi, Buchi Emecheta, A Nigerian Feminist Voice in Global Intellectual History
Zinhle Ka’Nobuhlaluse, Mamphela Ramphele’s Transgressive Thought: Challenging Power, Reimagining Futures

Dinner

Tuesday, 24 June

9.30 am Discussion of the Book Proposal
Daniel Speich, Introductory Comment

10.30 am African-European Encounters

Stephen Volz, Diagnosing an Unpredictable World: Tswana-British Dialogue on God and Nature During the Nineteenth Century
Arno Sonderegger: “Race”, “African Nationality” and “Self-Government” according to Africanus Horton
Ibrahima Sene, De-Centering Moscow: Black Intellectual Agency and Afro-Diasporic Political Thought in the Interwar Era
Marcia Schenck, Resonating Memories: The Life Writing of Regina Vera Cruz and the Legacy of African Labor Migration

Lunch

2.30 pm Rethinking African Revolutionary Thought

Lili Pontinta, Amilcar Cabral’s ‘Speech on March 8th’: A Gender Perspective
Trishula Patel, Suman Mehta, Afro-Asian Solidarity and the Struggle for Independence in Southern Rhodesia
Paulina Aroch-Fugellie, Rethinking Julius Nyerere

Coffee break

4.30 pm Construction and Development

Łukasz Stanek, Developmental Research in Post-Independence Ghana: The Housing Question
Mary Owusu, “Should Dams be Built?” Letitia Obeng and the Evolution of Sustainable Development Thought
Gerardo Serra, Kwame Nkrumah’s Architectural Temporalities

Dinner

Wednesday, 25 June

9.30 am Culture and History in the Age of Decolonization

Christoph Kalter, Joseph Ki-Zerbo’s Thoughts on Language, Education, Economic Development, and Cultural Decolonization
Christina Brauner, The "Middle Ages" in Africa: Concepts and Comparison in African Historiography, 1950ff
Fiachna McCarren, Rajat Neogy: A Life in Transition

11.15 am Concluding Discussion

We are particularly interested in proposals that move beyond the framework of a single national tradition and engage in a dialogue between European and Asian sources, though we also welcome case studies focusing on the work of individual authors. We welcome analyses of a wide range of sources, including traditional travel accounts, diaries, memoirs, and personal letters, but with an emphasis on real interactions experienced by the authors. Contributors are encouraged to consider the material dimensions of individual encounters as described in their sources and to reflect on the broader aesthetic and ideological meanings these scenes convey.

Call for Chapters Edited Volume - Encounters in Unexpected Places: Chinese and East-Central European Interactions in Peripheral Spaces, 1700-1949

The proposed volume aims to investigate diverse accounts of encounters between Chinese and East-Central Europeans, focusing on interactions outside the major centres typically associated with intercivilizational exchange.

The volume is based on three premises:

First, scholars of travel writing emphasize that ‘encounters are as essential to travel as place; they shape and define journeys’ (Mee 2014, 3). Even when travellers themselves write generally about “others”, still their knowledge owed a lot to individual encounters. Yet, despite their importance, depictions of individual interpersonal encounters have not been central to studies of travel writing. Therefore, we invite contributions that examine how Chinese and East-Central Europeans described these cross-cultural interactions and the role such representations played in shaping identity discourses.

Second, while there is a substantial body of scholarship on Western European encounters with the non-European world over the past few centuries – a period when European imperialism was the dominant force in world history – recent years have seen growing interest in studying intercivilizational contacts from a different perspective, namely, by focusing on actors from regions commonly regarded as peripheral. Therefore, we aim to take a closer look at encounters between Chinese and East-Central Europeans. Recent publications have explored this field and may serve as inspiration (Křížová and Malečková 2022; Huigen and Kołodziejczyk 2023; Kałczewiak and Kozłowska 2022; Mrázek 2024), though there is still much to explore.

Third, to investigate the topic of peripherality more deeply, we seek to focus on encounters taking place outside well-known cosmopolitan centres like Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, or New York – places traditionally seen as melting pots – and instead shift our attention to small towns, remote villages, country roads, and other locations less commonly associated with multicultural exchange.

We are particularly interested in proposals that move beyond the framework of a single national tradition and engage in a dialogue between European and Asian sources, though we also welcome case studies focusing on the work of individual authors. We welcome analyses of a wide range of sources, including traditional travel accounts, diaries, memoirs, and personal letters, but with an emphasis on real interactions experienced by the authors. Contributors are encouraged to consider the material dimensions of individual encounters as described in their sources and to reflect on the broader aesthetic and ideological meanings these scenes convey. The following questions may serve as a guiding framework: How did authors’ backgrounds influence their encounters and the meanings they ascribed to them? How did the context of the interaction shape the encounter? How did authors navigate cultural differences in diverse realities? How did descriptions of the people they met contribute to the construction of their own identities? What rhetorical devices were used to describe cross-cultural interactions? How often did they achieve genuine understanding, and how?

Practical information

The volume is planned for Anthem Studies in Encounters between Peripheral Region series. Please submit a short abstract (about 300-400 words) with a short biographical note in English by 31 August 2025 to the editorial team at tewert@shisu.edu.cn and tewert@amu.edu.pl. The editors of the publication will reply with any comments on the proposed topics and guidelines for the preparation of articles within two months. The planned deadline for full article submissions is April 2026.

Quoted literature

Huigen, Siegfried, and Dorota Kołodziejczyk. 2023. East Central Europe Between the Colonial and the Postcolonial in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Siegfried Huigen and Dorota Kołodziejczyk. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kałczewiak, Mariusz, and Magdalena Kozłowska, eds. 2022. The World beyond the West. Perspectives from Eastern Europe. New York: Berghahn.

Křížová, Markéta, and Jitka Malečková, eds. 2022. Central Europe and the Non-European World in the Long 19th Century. Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Mee, Catherine. 2014. Interpersonal Encounters in Contemporary Travel Writing: French and Italian Perspectives. London: Anthem Press.

Mrázek, Jan, ed. 2024. Escaping Kakania: Eastern European Travels in Colonial Southeast Asia. Vienna: Central European University Press.

Journal Ennen ja nyt seeks papers in three categories: Research Papers, Reflections and Essays, and Reviews for upcoming thematic issue about challenges in historical research between the Nordics and Southern African states, which is to be published in Autumn 2026. The guest editor of the issue is Jerkko Holmi (javhol@utu.fi).

Several recent approaches on researching themes like decolonial turn (Maldonado-Torres & Cavooris 2017), anticolonialism, and reconciliation of the relations between Global North and Global South have raised the discussion on methods, approaches and challenges of historical research. Scholars interested in themes like Nordic entanglements in colonial encounters often face the recurring problem – written and pictorial primary research materials are mainly available from the source of Global North based actors.

Current historical knowledge fortifies the colonial mindset and impacts on knowledge constructions on and about Africa. In the recent years the debate over colonial knowledge that Europeans utilised, pinpointed the ignored role of the colonized as passive informants and activities of European production of the knowledge. Indigenous people likewise contributed to the process, and the colonial knowledge was a result of collaboration between the two sides, an epistemic confrontation between two knowledge systems. This approach increasingly defines the broader history of colonialism and contributes to understanding of Global North action. (Wagoner 2003, Leibowitz 2017) The concept of decolonial praxis (Lordan & Dei 2016) has been introduced into the historical research to describe and provide tools for more unbiased approaches where (formerly) oppressed groups of people have been prioritised. It is also about giving a voice to those silenced by the colonial system, showcasing their interpretations of the past and parallel realities. Alternatives for classical historical research are often sought from new perspectives for preceding research questions, pursuing to provide alternative outlook and new primary sources for the same subjects and allow interpretation of this recent historical reality constituting dimensions of this thematic issue.

Decoloniality can also be seen to bear different meaning in different situations. Decolonisation can for example be interpreted as 1) theory used as a tool to engage into critical arguments (Govender & Naidoo 2023) as 2) movement or mission moving away from colonial infrastructures (Tuck & Yang 2012; Sultana 2019) and as 3) process of healing colonial wounds (Mignolo & Walsh 2018).

This thematic issue welcomes papers on empirical or conceptual research approaches that examine the intersection of decolonial research tradition and challenges the researchers pursue to overcome, to divert from the Global North dominantly orientated approach on the research subject in the modern era (from late 19th Century to late 20th Century). Papers may consider, for example, but are not limited to, different conceptions of decolonial historical research, questions of power and dominance, or ethics of research within the theme. This issue invites scholars also to reflect on methodological and critical perspectives that can challenge and advance our ways of thinking, encouraging the transcendence of disciplinary boundaries.

Papers will be selected based on proposals, i.e. short abstracts (maximum 250 words). Please send your proposal to the guest editor of the issue by September 30th 2025. Remember to specify the category (research paper, reflection/essay, or review) of your proposal and it can be written in either Finnish or English. Decisions will be announced by October 12th 2025. Full manuscripts should be submitted to the Guest Editor for comments by 28 February 2026. Only research papers are peer-revied and should be at maximum 55 000 characters including spaces and citations. For more information on the journal's writing guidelines and publication policies, see https://journal.fi/ennenjanyt/about/submissions.

Inquiries and abstracts for the call for papers can be sent to Jerkko Holmi (javhol@utu.fi), who will be the guest editor of the issue. Olli Kleemola (owklee@utu.fi) is the editor-in-chief of the journal.

Ennen ja nyt: Historian tietosanomat is a non-profit historical journal founded in 2001 that publishes peer-reviewed scholarly articles, reflections, essays, and book reviews. It is published in Finnish and English and, by agreement, in other languages. For more information about the journal, please visit https://journal.fi/ennenjanyt/index. Ennen ja nyt is a fully open access publication, the content of which is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Ennen ja nyt is at level 1 in Finnish Publication Forum, which classifies publication channels to support the quality assessment of academic research in Finland (more: https://julkaisufoorumi.fi/en)

Any expenses on the language checking or other expenses of the manuscripts are responsible of their authors.

We are pleased to announce that the 8th issue of the journal USAbroad – Journal of American History and Politics, “The Role of Public History Within and Outside the United States: Critical Reflections”, can be downloaded for free at the following address: https://usabroad.unibo.it/issue/view/1372

This issue of USAbroad – edited by Federico Chiaricati, Lorenzo Costaguta, Marta Gara, Chiara Migliori, Serena Mocci, Emanuele Nide and Matteo Rossi – investigates the “state of the art” of Public History as a discipline within and outside the United States, paying particular attention to how Public History about the United States was conducted by scholars outside the country. The response to the call took us in unexpected directions, which allowed us to broaden our geographical focus to the Western hemisphere and to suggest reflections on what Public History is and how it has been interpreted across time.

We hope you will enjoy the issue and we look forward to receiving your comments and feedback.

Best regards,

The USAbroad Editorial Team

 

Contents of the 8th Issue:

Introduction

The Role of Public History Within and Outside the United States: Critical Reflections

Essays

Daniel Scroop, William E. Leuchtenburg: The Professional as Public Historian

Darius Wainwright, Showcasing U.S. History in Iran and American Public Diplomacy’s Limitations, 1950–1965

Andreas Etges, “Honorable men”: Robert E. Lee, Erwin Rommel, and the Memory and Forgetting of Defeat and Guilt

María Elena Bedoya Hidalgo, Jimena Perry, Sebastián Vargas Álvarez, What Makes Latin American Public Histories Different? Dialogues, Debates, Perspectives

Deivison Amaral, Labor as Public and Digital History in Brazil

Bringing the History Back In

Alessandra Lorini, My Life as Historian of Public Memories: Performative Power of Pageants, Exhibits, and Monuments in the Public Space

 

by Matt Myers

Oxford University Press, 2025

• Offers a bold and exciting reinterpretation of contemporary European history and the history of the left
• A detailed archive-driven work involving 27 separate archives and multiple languages and oral history interviews
• Surveys an extremely large range of primary and secondary literature from seven countries
• "All students of contemporary socialism and the Left will have to reckon with Matt Myers's vigorously written and painstakingly researched argument that Socialist and Communist party strategies, and not the end of the historic working class, ushered in the age of neoliberalism. A book that should reorient a long debate." - Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor Emeritus of History, Harvard University

"An important contribution to understanding the historical halt of the European labour movement around 1980, through political class analyses of three decisive strikes in Britain, France, and Italy." - Göran Therborn, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Cambridge

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-halted-march-of-the-european-left-9780198944614

The EHLN working group, Arctic and Indigenous Labour, aims to bring together scholars interested in the historiography of Indigenous labour in settler colonies, both within and outside Europe.

Many labour historians associate Indigenous history with non-European history. However, to date, only Norway and Denmark are among the 23 countries that have ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organisation. While appearing as models for labour relations worldwide, scholars have paid little attention to the working and living conditions of Indigenous people in the Nordic countries. Although the process of industrialisation in the Nordic countries is rooted in settler colonialism, this aspect has not been a significant part of labour history.

There are good reasons for labour historians to consider the synergies that emerge from combining labour history and Indigenous history, as our colleagues from other parts of the world have demonstrated.

• The synergies are first conversations about dispossessive commons and capitalism.
• Secondly, perspectives in labour history that go beyond wage labour and address the topics of feminist labour history, unpaid labour, as well as race and racialisation in settler colonialism and forced labour.
• Thirdly, it refreshes old and new insights about work culture, customs, rituals, kin and community and culture as it is lived out in changing capitalism.
• And fourthly, it emphasises the interaction between Indigenous histories and the strong political protests among Indigenous people.

The Working Group offers a meeting space for labour and Indigenous historians to exchange ideas about theoretical frameworks, specific methods, and areas of blind spot in labour history.

With this call for papers, we invite you to submit proposals for papers, panels, or workshop ideas by September 1, 2025, to silke.neunsinger[at]arbark.se

We also encourage the inclusion of Indigenous scholars and activists in the planning and implementation of your activities at the ELHN.

The proposal should include a title, a short abstract (maximum of 300 words) for each paper, biographies of the participants, their affiliations, and contact details. If you wish to submit a panel, please send an abstract for the entire panel, as well as for each presentation included. For any other format, we require abstracts, names, affiliations, and contact details of participants. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions. We are looking forward to your submissions!

Silke Neunsinger, Inger Jonsson & Åsa Össbo

This is a call for abstracts for the Military Labour History Working Group (MLHWG) panels at the 6th conference of the European Labour History Network (ELHN), to be held at the University of Barcelona, Spain, 16-19 June 2026. See the following link for further information on the conference: https://socialhistoryportal.org/elhn/conference-2026. A full website for the conference will be available soon. To find out more about the MLHWG, visit our webpage.

Registration to the ELHN Conference is expected to open in February 2026. More details will follow. Costs of registration, travel and subsistence are at the expense of the participants. There will be a reduced registration fee for students and scholars without institutional affiliation. If you have an urgent request, please contact the ELHN at elhn@iisg.nl.

Before submitting an abstract for the MLHWG panels, please note the following:

1. This is an in-person conference only. Please ensure you can travel to Barcelona for the conference.
2. We cannot offer funding support. Please ensure you have access to other funding sources to support your attendance.
3. We have a limited number of positions available on the panels. There are a large number of Working Group panels to be accommodated at the conference.
4. The MLHWG coordinators reserve the right to make adjustments to the panels, including themes, in response to the number and type of received submissions.

At the ELHN 2026 Conference, the MLHWG will run a series of panel sessions related to both planned projects on military labour history and several themes nominated by the coordinators and WG members. We plan the following five panel sessions with paper presentations:

1. Military Labour in the Early Modern Era

The military profession underwent drastic changes during the early modern era. Armies grew dramatically, war became increasingly commercialised, and a transnational military labour force emerged. Despite the pivotal nature of this period, much of the focus of historical studies of military labour have focused on developments after the French revolution, rather than the preceding centuries. Related to an ongoing WG project, this panel seeks to build upon the discussions at the ELHN Uppsala conference 2024, bring focus to this relatively neglected period, and investigate continuity and change in military labour during the early modern period. Topics to be discussed may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Socio-cultural changes in the military profession: from warriors to salaried soldiers.
• Aspects and concepts in the professionalisation of warfare.
• Emergence and functioning of the international military labour market.
• Employer-labour relations and proletarisation of the work force.

2. Indigenous Military Labour (joint panel with Arctic and Indigenous Labour WG)

First Nations people have been faced with the military invasion of their lands and have contributed towards the military labour of those settler nations. In response to the former, they adapted their own military strategies to face a new type of enemy. In relation to the latter, Indigenous men and women have contributed to imperial wars, world wars, and cold wars and more. Despite doing so, they have continued to face discrimination within settler nations’ forces and in wider society. This panel proposes to examine Indigenous contributions to military labour and the ways military labour can intersect with rights activism, including but not limited to the following:

• Indigenous concepts of military labour.
• Recruitment, including prevention of acceptance into forces.
• Conscription and exclusion, including the right to self-determination.
• Roles and skills, including bringing Indigenous knowledges to military labour.
• Personal experiences, including gendered experiences of military labour.
• Protest, including rights activism during and after service.

3. Organising Soldiers: Unionisation, Collective Bargaining, and Activism

This session explores the ways in which soldiers have collectively organised to influence their working conditions, reform the military from within, and drive broader social change. A key focus will be on situating soldiers’ collective action within the broader framework of labour history. The session will explore how military service intersects with labour rights, industrial action, and workplace organising, highlighting the position of soldiers as both military workers and state agents. Through this lens, we seek to deepen our understanding of how soldiers have navigated the tensions between discipline, duty, and labour activism to shape their conditions of service and contribute to wider struggles for workers’ rights and social justice.

Against this backdrop, we welcome papers examining diverse form of soldier organising and activism, including but not limited to unionisation efforts, collective bargaining initiatives, soldiers’ councils, mutinies, strikes, informal resistance networks, and transnational dimensions of military labour. We also encourage papers that explore the intersections of gender, race, and class in shaping soldier activism, as well as the relationships between conscript associations and the broader labour movement.

4. Social Constructions and Divisions of Military Labour

Military labour is highly organised by markers such as class, gender, service, age, and rank. In turn, this can affect social status and prestige in civil society. This panel aims to look at the different ways that military labour is socially constructed and mediated, especially in terms of social prestige. This may include, but is not limited to, the following:

• The status of conscripts and reservists vis-à-vis regular military forces.
• Relationships and differences between army, navy and air force.
• The status of civilian workers in the military.
• Gender, identity and military labour.
• Race, ethnicity and military labour.

5. Labour, Coercion and the Military (this is joint panel with Labour and Coercion WG and has a different submission deadline of 7 July 2025)

In recent years, the military has been firmly established as a site of labour, and military labour history thus claimed its place within labour history. However, even though work related to war and the military is widely known to have included a significant amount of coercion, the interplay between work, coercion and punishment when it comes to the military and its actors has limited systematic research. This panel therefore aims to bring together research highlighting the connection between these dynamics – that is, how coercion was practiced, experienced and resisted when it came to the military throughout history. We employ a broad definition of military labour, including military service itself, but also – among others – work in infrastructure, transport workers, care and medical labour, women’s work in the military, convict labour. At the same time, we want to highlight that coercion is not a characteristic only of specific forms of labour relations, but a dynamic inscribed into multiple social relations. We especially want to highlight the following aspects of the complex relationship between labour, coercion and the military:

• Entering the military: Coercion in processes of military recruitment (e.g. forced recruitment, the recruitment of marginalised groups such as beggars and vagrants, but also systems of slavery, and the dynamics of coercion underlying the “voluntary” recruitment).
• Being punished through the military: the entanglement of the military and systems of punishment, focusing on the legitimacy of power and the control of bodies deemed reformable by punitive justice enforced through the military institutions (e.g. galley service, penal battalions, war captivity, or other punishment forms).
• Leaving the military: soldiers’ agency and ways of leaving the military (e.g. desertion, escapes, strategies to get discharged, invalidity).
• Surviving after the military: practices of work, coercion and (im)mobilisation of former soldiers and their families (e.g. entanglements of military labour, poor relief and the criminalisation of begging or vagrancy).

Papers from any geographical area welcome.

Submit your 300-word abstract to the MLHWG coordinators via militarylabourhistory@gmail.com by 7 July for the Labour, Coercion and the Military panel only and 1 September 2025 for the other panels. We will advise you of the outcome by the end of October 2025.

Please send the following information to the WG coordinators:

1. Your name and any institutional affiliation, where relevant.
2. The name of the panel for which you are nominating your paper. (If your paper is relevant to more than one panel theme, you may nominate these in order of preference.)
3. The title of your presentation.
4. An abstract of 300 words.
5. A short bio of up to 200 words and, optionally, a web bio or ORCID link.
6. Confirmation that you understand this is an in-person conference only.

Regards,

Olli Siitonen, Jeongmin Kim, Alexandros Touloumtzidis and Christine de Matos