Sunday 24 April 2016

Postgraduate Training Workshop 'Tracing Lives Beyond Borders', 13 May 2016



On Friday 13 May, postgraduates from the 'Histories of Activism' research group are organising ‘Tracing Lives Beyond Borders’, a half-day workshop designed to encourage discussion on the ways in which the movement of people facilitates the cross-border exchange of ideas. We will hear from postgraduate students and academics studying individuals whose lives and activism speak to this theme and there will be opportunities for participants to reflect on the methodological and epistemological aspects of their research.  Registration is open to postgraduate students as well as other researchers who may be interested in the theme. The workshop is free to all participants. Participation is free, but please register by 6 May via this link.

The event is kindly supported by the Northumbria University Graduate School and hosted in association with the Labour and Society Research Group. For further information about the event, feel free to contact the organisers via tracinglives@gmail.com

The workshop is taking place in Boardroom 1 of the Sutherland Building (building no. 31 on the campus map; use the entrance on Northumberland Road).

PROGRAMME

13h15 – 13h30
Registration and opening

13h30 – 14h15
Northumbria PhD students on activists who crossed borders
  • Lara Green on Sergei Stepniak (1851–1895)
  • Jasmine Calver on Gabrielle Duchêne (1870–1954)
  • Sophie Roberts on Peggy Duff (1910–1981)

14h15 – 15h00
Historians in conversation: the challenges of biography
  • Dr Charlotte Alston (Northumbria University) on her book Russia’s Greatest Enemy? Harold Williams and the Russian Revolutions (London, 2007)
  • Dr Matt Perry (Newcastle University) on his book ‘Red Ellen’ Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movement and World (Manchester, 2013)

15h00 – 15h30
Coffee break

15h30 – 16h30
Case studies and contexts
  • Dr Niall Whelehan (Edinburgh University): ‘Colonialism, Anarchism and the Transnational Life of an Irish Doctor’
  • Prof. Brian Ward (Northumbria University): ‘White Man in the Black Atlantic: The Transnational Odysseys of Frederick Delius’

16h30 – 16h40
Coffee break

16h40 – 17h15
Small group discussions and networking opportunities, facilitated by Dr André Keil (Durham University), Dr James Koranyi (Durham University) and Dr Tom Stammers (Durham University)

17h15 – 18h15
Keynote lecture
Prof. Christophe Verbruggen (University of Ghent): ‘Digital Humanities and the Effort to Capture Transnational Lives, Causes and Commitments’



18h15
Concluding remarks by Dr Daniel Laqua (Northumbria University)


Monday 11 April 2016

'Two Centuries of Peacemaking' conference, 7 and 8 June 2016


We are delighted to announce details of the ‘Two Centuries of Peacemaking’ conference, which will be held at Newcastle University and Northumbria University on 7 and 8 June. This event asks big questions about the direction and vitality of the peace movement over 200 years. It is a forum where scholars and activists will reflect on the past, present and future of the peace movement. Participants will consider the shifts that occurred in the peace movement, addressing issues such as conscientious objection and the importance of feminist/women’s activist roles, the geographical and historical coordinates and influence of the civil rights movement, King’s distinctive nonviolence, global peace movements, and much more.



We are organising this conference as 2016 is an anniversary year that encourages us to contemplate our understanding of peace and the paths towards it. Firstly, it is the centenary of Britain’s enactment of conscription during World War One, reminding us of those who rejected military service and became conscientious objectors. Secondly, June 2016 is the bicentenary of the establishment of the (London) Peace Society. Alongside the formation of the New York Peace Society, its appearance is commonly seen as the beginning of the modern peace movement. Thirdly, 2016 is the start of a year of activities that commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s visit to Newcastle, where he accepted an honorary doctorate in November 1967. His impromptu address, which fused together the issues of poverty, war and racism, has inspired research at the city’s two universities and informs the work of the Martin Luther King PeaceCommittee which seeks to honour King’s legacy by ‘building cultures of peace’. 

In addition to around 25 academic papers, the conference will feature keynote lectures by Martin Ceadel, David Cortright, Kate Hudson and Thomas F. Jackson. Kate Hudson’s talk is a free public lecture. It is preceded by Peace Fair at which local initiatives on peace and conflict will present their work.


The conference is jointly organised and hosted by academics from Newcastle University (Nick Megoran, Ben Houston) and members of the 'Histories of Activism' research group at Northumbria University (Jon Coburn, Daniel Laqua, Sarah Hellawell). 

Registration both for the conference itself and for the free public lecture and peace fair has now closed. If you would like to get in touch with the organisers, feel free to email twocenturiesofpeacemaking@gmail.com.



PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME



Tuesday, 7 June


09:30 – 10:00     Registration and coffee


10:00 – 11:15      Plenary I: Martin Ceadel (University of Oxford) 'The Peace Society in retrospect'


11:15 – 11:45      Refreshments


11:45 – 13:15      Panel sessions A


a cENTURY OF Transnational peace aCTIVISM, 1825 TO 1925

  • Michael Clinton (Gwynedd Mercy University)Making friends of peace: exchanges between British and French peace advocates during the nineteenth century
  • Daniel Laqua (Northumbria University)The transnational trajectories of Leopold Katscher
  • Sarah Hellawell (Northumbria University) WILPF and transnational campaigning in the 1920s and 1930s

RETHINKING KING
  • Simon Hall (Leeds University)1956: the year that made Martin Luther King, Jr. 
  • Peter Ling (Nottingham University) King’s performance of Gandhian nonviolence
  • Jake Hodder (Nottingham University) American pacifists and the political construction of Kingiji


13:15 – 14:30      Lunch


14:30 – 16:30      Panel sessions B

THE PEACE SOCIETY
  • Ben Houston, Nick Megoran and Matthew Scott (Newcastle University) The Newcastle Upon-Tyne Auxiliary Peace Society, c. 1817–1850 
  • David Saunders (Newcastle University) Peace In North-East England, 1816–1914 
  • Keith Edghill (UCL)Early nineteenth-century Christian pacifists and the Concept of defensive war 
  • Richard Allen (University of South Wales) ‘The disgrace of a Christian society’ (William Wilberforce): The Herald Of Peace and its reports on duelling in the 1820s

 NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF NONVIOLENCE 
  • Sherrill W. Hayes (Kennesaw State University) 'Peacejacking' and social policy: a case study of Martin Luther King and the Fair Housing Act of 1968
  • Maia Hallward (Kennesaw State University)Exploring the tensions and contradictions of nonviolence: the case of academic boycott
  • Andreas Hackl (Edinburgh University) Civility and resistance: debating the case of Palestinians in Tel Aviv
  • Roberto Baldoli (Exeter University) Reconsidering nonviolence: a revolutionary ideology for freedom and plurality

17:15 – 18:30    Peace fair with stalls by 14 groups and initiatives as well as refreshments, snacks and music



18:30 – 20:00    Plenary II / public lecture: Kate Hudson (CND) – 'Peace activism in twentieth-century Britain'





Wednesday, 8 June



09:00 – 09:30    Registration and coffee



09:30 – 10:45    Plenary III: Thomas F. Jackson (University of North Carolina) – 'Chicago to Newcastle: jangling disords of Martin Luther King's nonviolent strategy in November 1967'



10:45 – 11:15    Refreshments



11:15 – 12:45    Panel sessions C



Peace Activism AND THE GREAT WAR

  • Sabine Grimshaw (Leeds University) Writing about peace: self-representations of peace activists during the First World War
  • Matt Perry (Newcastle University) The Black Sea Mutinies: war, peace and revolution in mutineer subjectivity
  • André Keil (Durham University) Civil liberties and human rights activism during the Great War: the Bund Neues Vaterland and the Union of Democratic Control

CRITIQUING EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM

  • Christian Hogsbjerg (UCL) 'Peace and empire are irreconcilable': C.L.R. James, Pan-Africanism and peacemaking in the Age of Extremes
  • Ellen Crabtree (Newcastle University) Books for Vietnam: French academic activism during the Vietnam War
  • Discussant: Joe Street (Northumbria University)


12:45 – 13:45      Lunch



13:45 – 15:15      Panel sessions D



WOMEN AND INTERNATIONALISM

  • Laurie Cohen (Universität Innsbruck) and Helen Kay (independent researcher) –  Connected enemies: German and British peace women communications during World War One
  • Ingrid Sharp (Leeds University) An unbroken family? Restoring the international community of women after World War I
  • Laura Beers (Birmingham University)Liberal and socialist collaboration in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

THINKING ABOUT PEACE AND WAR SINCE 1945
  • Jon Coburn (Northumbria University) And the beat goes on: past, present and future in a peace activist’s memoirs
  • Christoph Laucht (Swansea University)Hiroshima, Nagasaki and transnational medical activism against nuclear weapons in Britain, West Germany and the United States during the 1980s
  • Tom Bishop (Nottingham University) Salesmen, fallout shelters and consumer protest during the Nuclear Age


15:15 – 16:30      Plenary IV: David Cortright (University of Notre Dame) 'Peace: the past, present and future of an idea and a movement'