Call for Papers - Histories of 1914. Debates and Use of the Origins of World War One in Southeastern Europe

Conference venue: University of Graz, Austria
Period: November 20-22, 2014
Deadline for submitting abstracts: May 31, 2014

The annual conference of the Centre for Southeast European Studies “Southeast European Dialogues” will be devoted this year to the centenary of the beginning of World War One. Rather than looking at the war itself and its causes, the conference will explore the way the war is remembered in Southeastern Europe. The narratives of the causes and origins of the war have been subject to reinterpretation and renewed interest over the past year and the conference will map out the debates over how to remember the beginning of World War One, the way in which these narrative fit into existing national historiographies and how larger historical debates fit into the regional context, as well as how these debates have evolved over time and interrelate with the present.

Thus, the conference will reflect on the origins of World War One and the war itself in three fields:
Firstly, the conference will innovatively reflect the historiography on the outbreak of the war, its causes and the impact of the war in Southeastern Europe.
Secondly, the conference will explore the ways the war is remembered in Southeastern Europe.
And thirdly, the conference will offer insights into the ways in which the war and its break out have become subject to ideological and political interpretation.
As recent Western historiography has shifted the origins of World War One more to Southeastern Europe, focusing on Gavrilo Princip and the role of Serbia, the conference seeks to explore how this has partially fuelled anti-Western/victimization narratives in the region and also risks furthering an Balkanist view of the region.
Within Southeastern Europe, in Serbia and Bosnia in particular, there has been controversy over how to remember Gavrilo Princip and how to characterize Austro-Hungarian rule in the region. The conference will explore these debates and relate them to the larger historiographical controversies. The degree to which the question of responsibility for the outbreak of the war related to the contemporary states and their self-perception through public commemoration will be another focus of the conference, as well as competing ethnonationalist and political interpretations and commemoration.
As such, the conference seeks to embed the historical understanding of the past with the present and link the regional with global debates. Being an interdisciplinary conference, it will highlight not just historiographical debates, but political and ideological representation and instrumentalisation, the visual culture of remembrance and popular culture.

The presentations are invited to reflect on these debates and historiographical discussions in Southeastern Europe, including not just the post-Yugoslav space, but also Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Greece, as well comparative studies that link the region to larger global and European debates.

The goal of the conference is to map out contemporary debates of the origins of World War One and the larger historical memory of the war and to contextualize these national and regional debates in the larger European context.

The conference, drawing on the previous conference in the series Southeast European Dialogues, seeks to attract of senior and junior scholars. The first panel will include senior scholars to reflect on the larger debate. Subsequent panels with approx. 3 paper givers and a moderator/discussant per panel will seek to stimulate a cross-country and regional debate and seek embed the debates in Southeastern Europe within larger European discussion. In addition, it will seek to draw on a diverse disciplinary background. The conference will take place in English. Besides focusing on the academic debates, the conference will explore the political use and abuse and its relevance for contemporary analogies.

If you are interested in contributing to the conference, please submit a 300-500 word abstract and a CV by 31 May 2014 to tanja.bilaver@uni-graz.at. A committee of the co-organisers will subsequently select around 10-20 participants based on the abstracts and academic qualifications. Accepted applicants will need to submit draft papers of 6,000-8,000 words one month prior to the conference. The drafts will be circulated among conference participants. Accommodation and board as well as transport to and from Graz will be covered for participants (conditional on the submission of the draft paper by the deadline).

Sections of the conference will be filmed by the University of Graz and will be made available on the university and centre’s website. In addition, members of staff will conduct short interviews with key participants that will be also made available as podcasts shortly after the conference. In addition, a follow up publication is planned. It is intended that a selection of the best papers will be published in a edited collection to be published as part of the series Southeast European Studies of the UK publishing house Ashgate. The series is edited by the Centre for Southeast European Studies. All paper givers are request to submit a draft paper prior to the conference and to finalize their paper within three months after the conference. The edited volume will then be published in 2015. Additional chapters might be solicited to ensure the coherence and relevance of the book.
In order to secure a maximum impact, it is planned to invite regional and European media to the high-profile panel and organize a press conference.

Center for Southeast European Studies
e-mail: tanja.bilaver@uni-graz.at