Call for Papers - The Jewish Experience of the First World War

Conference venue: University of Sussex, UK
Period: June 11-13, 2014
Deadline for submitting abstracts: December 6, 2013

Just decades after the experience of intense persecution and struggle for recognition that marked the 1870s and ‘80s, Jewish leaders and ordinary Jews across the globe found themselves at an unprecedented social and political crossroads. The frenzied military, social, and cultural mobilisation of European societies from 1914, along with the outbreak of revolution in Russia and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, had a profound impact on Jewish communities worldwide. The First World War thus constitutes a seminal but relatively under-researched moment in the evolution of modern Jewish history.
This two-day conference seeks to explore the variety of social and political phenomena that combined to the make the First World War a key turning point in the Jewish experience of the 20th century. Delegates will consider the degree to which individual Jews and Jewish communities in Europe, the US and elsewhere engaged with total war between 1914 and ’18 in a broad interdisciplinary and transnational context. By bringing together junior and more established scholars from a range of different disciplines, the conference aims to provide the setting for the an in-depth discussion on the place and multifaceted meanings of the First World War for our understanding of the Jewish experience of the modern era.

Papers are invited to engage with one or several of the following themes:

The conference will be hosted by the Centre for German Jewish Studies, University of Sussex, in association with the History Department, Royal Holloway, UL, and convened by Gideon Reuveni (Sussex), Edward Madigan (Royal Holloway) and Claudia Siebrecht (Sussex).
The Deadline for the submission of abstracts is 6 December 2013 and all applicants will be contacted by 31 January 2014.
Submissions should include the name and institutional affiliation of the applicant, a CV, and an abstract for a proposed paper of no more than 300 words.
All abstracts and any preliminary enquiries should be addressed Dr Reuveni at: g.reuveni@sussex.ac.uk .