[Bilimsel Haber] CONF. CFP: "Not All Quiet on the Ottoman Fronts: Neglected Perspectives on a Global War, 1914-1918, " 9-12 April 2014, Ist. Bilgi U

[Gonul Pultar]

Call for Papers:

“NOT ALL QUIET ON THE OTTOMAN FRONTS: NEGLECTED PERSPECTIVES ON A GLOBAL
WAR, 1914-1918”

“OSMANLI CEPHESİNDE YENİ BİR ŞEY VAR: CİHAN HARBİ’NE (1914-1918) YENİDEN
BAKMAK”

Istanbul, 9 – 12 April 2014

*Deadline **June 1, 2013***

www.ottomanfronts1914-1918.org



The History Foundation (Tarih Vakfı) and Orient-Institut Istanbul with 
the support of Boğaziçi University, Institut Français des Études 
Anatoliennes (IFEA), Istanbul Bilgi University, Sabancı University, and 
Şehir University will host an international multidisciplinary conference 
on World War I at Istanbul Bilgi University between 9 and 12 April 2014.

The study of the First World War in the initial phase focused on the
question of war aims and the responsibility for its outbreak in the
framework of imperialism and the process of nation building and/or
reaffirmation of national concepts on the great battlefields. Following 
the social turn in history of the 1970s, researchers discussed the 
social history of the war. Following the discursive turn of the late 
1980s, a new focus on representations of the war in public memory 
evolved. More recently, historians have concentrated on atrocities.

The historiography of the Ottoman fronts has followed the same general
trends, although not always at the same moments in time. Debates have
concentrated on: the question whether the Ottoman entry into hostilities
was a genuine decision by the country’s government or the result of 
German imperialist manipulation; the relevance of the Gallipoli front 
(Çanakkale) for the nation building processes in Turkey, Australia, and 
New Zealand; atrocities committed against civilians in the framework of 
either retaliation or of demographic engineering.

As World War I was the central founding experience of the twentieth 
century and thus needs to be discussed in relation to various segments 
of society and on several levels, we believe that its 100thanniversary 
is the appropriate moment to bring together recent research on the 
Ottoman theater of the war based on the various traditions of this new 
military history established in the last 30 years and assess where we 
stand today in our knowledge of the World War and where we are headed. 
We therefore invite papers that have developed existing approaches and 
questions to a further level. On this basis these papers will aid us in 
entering into a comparative -and where possible transnational 
perspective of the war.



*Experiencing the War***

The experience of the war varied greatly not only between different
national (or proto-national) groups, but also according to the 
individual role people assumed during these years. Those groups, which 
were not integrated into the later national narrative of the war, such 
as, for example, deserters, ethnic minority soldiers, or even prisoners, 
have not received due attention. Groups, which are integrated into the 
national narrative, such as irregulars, on the other hand need to be 
reconsidered without a teleological bias. Also issues related to 
everyday life behind the front, including gender, labour, and sanitary 
conditions, are taken into consideration.


*Organizing the War*

Many techniques modern states use to organize, control, indoctrinate,
punish, economically exploit, sanitarily protect, or demographically
manipulate their citizenry were either introduced or mass-fieldtested in
this period. These need to be analysed both in their original martial
framework and in terms of their long-term impact on societies. On this
basis, we can come to a more in-depth understanding of governance of the
Ottoman state (and others) in wartime, its aims and methods. In the same
way, possible manifestations of individual or group resistance vis-à-vis
war-related social engineering need to be addressed.


*Speaking about the War*

War on an unprecedented scale led those affected to search for novel 
ways to cope with their experiences, to communicate their feelings, 
hopes, despair in personal writings, to distract themselves in 
entertainment or to laud or criticize the war and what they saw as its 
underlying causes in art, literature, or other forms of culture and 
expression of self.

In subsequent periods, the public discourse on the Great War became
increasingly selective. Certain aspects of the war, such as masculinity,
heroism, the need for sacrifice for a greater good and religious or
semi-religious devotion used to be commemorated, whereas issues failing 
to agree with hegemonic discourses were suppressed and forgotten. As a
consequence, we encounter a set of established historical realities 
which need to be reviewed and deconstructed. A critical rereading of the
discourses and their production processes allow us to determine the 
missing links, silences, and generalizations that have become common for 
general views of the war.



Papers may address one or more of, *but are not limited to*, the 
following topics:

*Experiencing the War*

-         officers
-         drafted soldiers
-         deserters
-         nurses and other medical staff
-         veterans and wounded
-         prisoners of war
-         civilian internees
-         ‘ethnic minority’ soldiers
-         violence in its various forms


*Organizing the War*

-         war aims
-         governance in wartime
-         war economy, supply (incl. black market, smuggling), transport
-         health and provisioning
-         the battlefield and irregular troops
-         military justice
-         intelligenc
-         the *teşkilat-ı mahsusa*
-         forced migration
-         Germany’s role in the war


*Speaking about the War*

-         Propaganda: inciting the masses, orchestrating jihad,
anti-colonial revolt, etc.
-         literature, arts, culture
-         historiography in national and post-national perspective
-         personal testimonies (ego-history)
-         public memory and commemoration



*Abstracts*

Abstracts and proposals for panels of maximum 500 words should be 
submitted to <info at ottomanfronts1914-1918.org> with a brief CV of the 
submitters.

*Deadline for submission of abstract: **June 1, 2013*

We welcome papers from across a wide range of academic disciplines,
including history, politics, anthropology, sociology, economy, 
literature, art, media, and geography. We especially seek applications 
from scholars whose work is informed by a broad perspective of war and 
society.


The papers will be selected according to the novelty of the themes and
findings addressed or their potential to take existing debates into a 
new direction. The academic quality and promise will be assessed by a 
committee formed of representatives of the organizing institutions. The 
working languages of the conference will be English and Turkish.

We kindly invite the participants to approach their own institutions in 
the first instance to cover their costs. Partial support for travel 
expenses and accommodation of some participants will be provided.

Participants will need to submit their complete papers by February 1, 
2014 for their panel discussants to have sufficient time to prepare a 
response.



*Organizing Institutions*

TARİH VAKFI
ORIENT-INSTITUT ISTANBUL



*Supporting Institutions*

Boğaziçi University
İstanbul Bilgi University
IFEA (Institut d’Etudes Français Anatoliennes)
Sabancı University
İstanbul Şehir University



*Organizing Committee*

Mehmet Ö. Alkan       (İstanbul University)
Mehmet Beşikçi        (Yıldız Technical University)
Bülent Bilmez         (İstanbul Bilgi University)
Sinan Birdal          (Işık University)
Doğan Çetinkaya       (İstanbul University)
Evangelos Kechriotis  (Boğaziçi University
Abdülhamit Kırmızı    (İstanbul Şehir University)
Erol Köroğlu          (Boğaziçi University)
Oktay Özel            (Bilkent University)
Akşin Somel           (Sabancı University)
Işık Tamdoğan         (IFEA)
Alexandre Toumarkine  (Orient-Institut Istanbul)
Richard Wittmann      (Orient-Institut Istanbul)
Sinan Yıldırmaz       (İstanbul University)