World-Counter-Revolutions: 1917-1920 from a Global Perspective

1917 was an important year for historical change on a global scale - not only due to the American entry into the War and the Russian Revolution. The year can rightly be considered the turning point of the First World War and the foundations for the decisive structures of the short 20th century. Contemporary observers recognized these global connections very well. But in the historiography limited to the Nation State these global connections did not matter for decades. This has changed during recent years. New research projects have analyzed the transnational links between the innumerable revolts, rebellions and revolutions and the following violent reactions in all parts of the world. They have focused on the scarcely known incidents far away from the global "centers", investigated south-south relations and revealed new research potentials.

The conference will unite these new investigations and open up space for dialogues. Transnational and comparative approaches will be considered as well as perspectives from social, economic, cultural and political history. The revolutions and counterrevolutions of the years 1917-1920 will be compared. Their entanglements will be analyzed in a global context. How did the revolutionary potential develop in different world regions before 1917? What was the impact of the Russian Revolution? How can transfers of knowledge, experiences and practices be described? What kind of images were spread on a transnational scale? How can the relationship between local and external causes be described? What was the importance of violence in the disputes of the late war years and the early post-war years? What kind of reactions developed? To what extent were revolutionary and counterrevolutionary movements in different contexts and continents linked to each other?

We are looking forward to welcoming researchers at the conference "World-Counter-Revolutions: 1917-1920 from a Global Perspective" from June 9-11, 2016 in Hanover, Germany.

Thursday, 9 June 2016

14:00 
Welcome Address: Wilhelm Krull, Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation 
Introduction: Stefan Rinke (Freie Universität Berlin) and Michael Wildt (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

14:30
Keynote: Jörn Leonhard (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg): 
»1917-1920 and the Global Revolution of Rising Expectations«

Panel I: The Russian Revolution in Europe and Beyond 
Chair: Sebastian Conrad (Freie Universität Berlin)

Igor Narsky (South Urals State University in Chelyabinsk): 
»Light and Blood: Images of the Russian Revolution in the Perception and Behavior of its Participants«

Michael Jabara Carley (Université de Montréal): 
»November 1917: The Beginning of the Cold War«

Commentary: Jan Claas Behrends (Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam)

18:30 
Poster Session: Short Presentations by Young Scholars 
Alex Burkhardt (University of St. Andrews) 
»Revolution and Bürgerliche Radicalisation in Hof-an-der-Saale«

Karina Kriegesmann (Freie Universität Berlin) 
»Brazilian Media and the Red Peril«

Tamás Révész (Universität Wien) 
»The War Veteran's Memoires about the Revolutions in Austria and Hungary«

Carla Russ (Freie Universität Berlin) 
»German War Propaganda, the Mexican Revolution and Anti-Imperialism«

Itzel Toledo García (University of Essex) 
»>Greuel in Mexiko<: German Diplomacy and the Cristero Counter-Revolution in Mexico«

David Murrieta Flores (University of Essex) 
»>Greuel in Mexiko<: Catholic German Representations During the Cristero Counter-Revolution«

Niels Ungruhe (Universität Bielefeld) 
»Violence and Fears of a >Russian< Revolution in the Ruhr Area«

Yovita Vakolavene (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) 
»The Role of African Women in the First World War in German East Africa«

Arturo Zoffmann Rodríguez (European University Institute, Florence) 
»The Spanish Anarchists and the Russian Revolution«

Friday, 10 June 2016 
Panel II: Anti-Colonial and Anti-Imperial Movements 
Chair: Michael Goebel (Freie Universität Berlin)

Abdulhamit Kirmizi (Istanbul Sehir University) 
»After Empire, Before Nation: Competing Visions of Order in the Ottoman Empire After 1917«

Jie-Hyun Lim (Sogang University, Seoul) 
»Revolution Comes to East: Colonial Modernity, National Subjectivity and Subaltern Everydayness«

Commentary: Hannes Grandits (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Panel III: The Role of Violence 
Chair: Michael Wildt (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Tomio Izao (Yamaguchi Prefectural University) 
»The Role of Japan's Intervention in Siberia in Japan's Modern History«

Robert Gerwarth (University College Dublin) 
»The Role of Violence in the European Counter-Revolution, 1917-1939«

Commentary: Jan Schmidt (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Panel IV: Nationalist Movements and Transnational Connections 
Chair: Stefan Rinke (Freie Universität Berlin)

María Inés Tato (Universidad de Buenos Aires/CONICET) 
»Rethinking National Identity. Argentina at the Critical Juncture of 1917«

Guoqi Xu (University of Hong Kong) 
»China in the Age of Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions«

Commentary: Klaus Mühlhahn (Freie Universität Berlin)

Panel V: Visions of Order 
Chair: Andreas Eckert (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Klaus Weinhauer (Universität Bielefeld) 
»(Trans)Local Challenges to Global Order: Entangling Collective Action and Imaginaries of Threat, c. 1916-23«

Adam Tooze (Columbia University) 
»>Knave Proof<: The Macroeconomics of Stabilization in Europe and the U.S., 1919-1926«

Commentary: Anthony McElligott (University of Limerick)

Saturday, 11 June 2016 
Panel VI: Perils of Democracy 
Chair: Birgit Aschmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Patrick J. Houlihan (University of Oxford) 
»Global Catholicism's Crusade Against Communism, 1917-1963«

Enric Ucelay-Da Cal (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) 
»Spain's >Crisis of 1917<: The Failure of Hispanic Radical Change and Contemporary European Alternatives«

Commentary: Helmut Bley (Leibniz Universität Hanover)

Panel VII: Cultural Manifestations of Revolution 
Chair: Oliver Janz (Freie Universität Berlin)

Ricardo Pérez Montfort (Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Mexico) 
»The Appearance and Rise of Popular Culture: Mexico, Russia and the USA, 1917-1920«

David Hopkins (University of Glasgow) 
»International Dada: Between Aesthetic and Political Revolution«

Commentary: Peter Geimer (Freie Universität Berlin) 
The conference language is English.

Registration: 
There are no fees for attendance but registration is essential. If you would like to attend the conference, please register on the website of the Volkswagen Foundation. We have a waiting list for the conference. Therefore, please cancel your attendance using the registration tool if you cannot attend the conference.

Venue: 
The conference is held at Herrenhausen Palace, a new conference center in Hanover, Germany. 
Schloss Herrenhausen, Auditorium 
Herrenhäuser Straße 5 
30419 Hanover, Germany

Email: revolution16@zedat.fu-berlin.de

http://www.lai.fu-berlin.de/disziplinen/geschichte/conference-revolutions/index.html