- a full programme of seminars and lectures may be found in the Lecture List (PDF format).
2009
March - April
Third workshop, 'Around 1968: Activism, Networks, Trajectories'.
2008
January - February
Fourth Europeanization workshop with Berlin historians.
March - April
13 - 14 March
A conference on 'The intellectual consequences of religious heterodoxy in Europe, 1650-1750' will take place at St. Hugh's College, Oxford. Convenor: Dr John Robertson (St. Hugh's College, Oxford).
First John Fell OUP Research Fund Workshop "Folk Culture to National Culture and Beyond (and back)" is being planned for 11-12 April 2008.
The second workshop, 'Around 1968: Activism, Networks, Trajectories' will be held on 24-27 April 2008 in the University of Roskilde, Denmark.
A series of workshops and a conference on the theme "Religious Internationalism' is being planned for 08-09.
A conference on 'The Social History of Nationalism in 19th Century Europe". Date tbc.
'Claims of Rights: Imagining Democracy' workshop will take place in Munich on either 12/13 or 19/20 Sep 08.
26 Sep
The second John Fell OUP Resaerch Fund Workhsop 'The Nation in the Town: nationalism and the Reshaping of Urban communities in Europe ,c.1848-1914' is being planned for 26 September 2008.
The MEHRC, in conjunction with the Polish Embassy, is currently planning a lecture to be given by a prominent Polish historian.
2007
February
Professor Peter Hennock (University of Liverpool) delivered a lecture on 'The Origin of the Welfare State in England and Germany, 1850-1920. Social Policies Compared' on Tuesday, 13 February at 5 p.m. in the Hawkins Room, Merton College. This lecture was organised in conjucntion with ther British History Seminar.
January - March
Seminar on History, Politics and Memory in Twentieth-Century Europe, convened by Robert Gildea and Marie-Claire Lavabre, Wednesdays at 5 p.m.
March
9 March
A Workshop on 'European History as a World History. Towards a non eurocentric history of Europe' took place on Friday, 9 March at 3.00 p.m. at the Maison Francaise, Oxford, under the convenorship of Jean-Frederic Schaub (MEHRC-MFO). A copy of the programme is available.
18-19 March
'Around 1968: Activism, Networks and Trajectories' 1st workshop took place in Oxford, 15-17 March. A copy of the programme and a report on the workshop can be downloaded.
(Delegates attending the workshop, History Faculty, University of Oxford)
From left, (front row: James Mark (Exeter), Polymeris Voglis (Thessaly), Niek Pas (Amsterdam), John Davis (Oxford). Second row: Nigel Townson (Madrid), Anette Warring (Roskilde), Robert Gildea (Oxford). Back row: Juliane Furst (Oxford), Anna Menge (Oxford), Oldrich Tuma (Prague), Rebecca Clifford (Oxford).
22-23 March
The second Oxford-Princeton Workshop took place in Oxford. Further information on this joint research project on 'Making Order in the Post-war World: A Comparative Study of Europe and East Asia in the 1940s and 1950s' is available. A copy of the workshop programme can be downloaded.
23-24 March
The 'Claims of Rights: Imagining Democracy' conference took place at the Maison Francaise. The proposed theme for the workshop arose out of discussions which took place during our previous workshop, in April 2005. Our initial proposition is that 'rights' language continued to be used by some people to some extent during this period, but that we do not have a clear picture as to who used it, in what ways and in what contexts. Given that it became (as we think) increasingly common in this period to take society and government as givens, and moreover as historically particular in their form, and needing to be dealt with as such, it would seem that it should have become more difficult to deploy the idea of rights as prior to society or as arising from an original contract. However, there are many other ways in which rights may be conceived: for example, as founded in constitutions, law or history; in divine intention; or as quasi-contractual: representing the reasonable expectations of social beings. In particular practical contexts, claims of 'right' may be made emotively, tactically or eclectically, without it necessarily being clear in what way they are supposed to be grounded - although we nonetheless expect that some people made claims of this kind more readily than others, and it would be of interest to know who made them in what contexts to what audiences, and to attempt to illuminate the thought-patterns or tactics involved. It is also clear that in this period contemporaries identified a range of 'bad' rights - those associated with privilege, status and class - and, closely related, 'customs against law', used to ground claims of right, which could include popular customs. These were often targeted by reformers and that complicated any clear division between those who based their claims on rights and those who sought some other foundation.
Contributors were encouraged to draw on their own research as a basis for contributing to discussion either in relation to theories of rights, or rights in some specific application. : Dr J Innes (Somerville) and Dr Mark Philp (Oriel). A copy of the programme and outlines may be downloaded.
(Pictured above: Participants at the 'Claims of Rights' workshop, 23-24 March, Oxford)
May
4-5 May
A Workshop on 'Constitutions, Civility, and Violence: Europe from the mid-eighteenth century to the present' took place at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, on 4-5 May. Convened by Jose Harris (St. Catherine's College, Oxford) with Robert Gerwarth (Corpus Christi, Oxford) and Holger Nehring (University of Sheffield). Sponsored by the MEHRC, Journal of Modern European History, Munich, the John Fell OUP Fund and the British Academy. A copy of the programme and aims of the workshop is available.
(Pictured above: Participants at the Workshop on 'Constitutions, Civility, and Violence: Europe from the mid-eighteenth century to the present', 4-5 May, Oxford)
21-21 May
The second Europeanization workshop took place with Berlin Historians.
June
1 June
A lecture by Professor Bernd Martin (Freiburg) on 'The Warsaw Rising of 1944 and its Impact on Postwar german-Polish Relations' took place on 1 June 2007.
2 June
The third in a series of Oxford-Oslo Workshops on the theme of 'The Value(s) of International Organisation: Historical Reflections', was held on 2 June 07 in Jesus College, Oxford. Convenors: Dr Patricia Clavin, Jesus College, Oxford) and Professor Helge Pharo (University of Oslo). Please download a copy of the programme.
15-16 June
The Fourth Political Violence workshop on revolution and counter-revolution at NIOd, Amsterdam, was held on 15-16 June 07.
29 - 30 June
A Symposium on the Spanish Civil War was held in Oxford on 29-30 June 2007. Convenors: Dr Tom Buchanan(Oxford), Tim Rees (Exeter), Nigel Townson (Complutense, Madrid). Sponsored by the MEHRC in collaboration with the Centro de Estudios Constitucionales y Politicos, Complutense University, Madrid.
6 July
EurHistXX meeting took place in Paris.
September
Third Europeanization workshop with Berlin historians will be held in Oxford on 14-15 December 2007.
December
Unfortuntely, the forthcoming lecture by Professor Stanley Payne (University of Wisconsin-Madison) on 'Franco's Temptation: Hitler and Spain in World War II' which was due to take place in Oxford on 6 Dec has had to be cancelled.
2006
March
3 March,
The MEHRC and the Maison Franciase d'Oxford were pleased to hold a lecture by Professor Jean-Frederic Schaub (Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris) on "The Early-Modern World and the Feeling of the Ubiquity of Barbarism", which took place on Friday, 3 March 2006 in the Modern History Research Unit. The Chair was Dr Ruth Harris and responses were given by Professor Sir John Elliott, Dr David Parrott and Dr N Davidson.
(See picture from left to right: Professor Sir John Elliott, Dr David Parrott, Professor Jean-Frederic Schaub and Dr Nick Davidson).
13 March
The Historical Perspectives on the Transitions to Democracy in Southern Europe Workshop took place on Monday, 13 March 2006 at 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. in the History Faculty. This was a joint project between the MEHRC and the Portuguese Studies Centre in Oxford. The workshop discussed the mid-1970s, which witnessed very significant political and social change in Portugal, Greece and Spain. There was a combination of thematic papers and studies at national level, which prompted wide-ranging discussions of the nature of democracy and the prcesses of political change. It was attended by a range of academic historians and political scientists, commentators and graduate students from Oxford and elsewhere in the United Kingdon.
(Pictured from left: Dr Nuno Severiano Teixeira, Dr Teresa Pinto Coelho, Dr Cristina Palomares, Dr Othon Anastasakis, Professor David Corkill, Dr Tom Buchanan).
Introduction by Teresa Pinto Coelho (Director of the Instituto Camoes Centre for Portuguese Studies, Oxford) and Tom Buchanan (OUDCE, Oxford).
Papers were given by:
Nuno Severiano Teixeira (Director, Portuguese Institute for International Relations, Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Dr Cristina Palomares (FAES Foundation, Madrid)
Dr Othon Anastasakis (St. Antony's, Oxford)
Professor David Corkill (University of Manchester)
A copy of the programme may be downloaded.
17-18 March
A joint Oxford-Princeton Workshop "After The Deluge" on Post Second World War Societies and Politics of Europe and East Asia was held in Princeton on 17-18 March. The delegation from Oxford included Dr Martin Conway, Dr Tom Buchanan, Dr Rana Mitter, Dr Nick Stargardt, Mr Rob Cliver, Dr Julianne Fuerst, Mr Holger Nehring. For further information, please download a report on the conference by Dr Nick Stargardt. A further workshop will take place 22-23 March 2007 in Oxford.
23-24 March
A conference on 'Wilhelmine Germany and Edwardian Britain - Cultural Contacts and Transfers' was held on 23-24 March 2006 at University College, Oxford, in co-operation with the German Historical Institute. The first decade of the twentieth century was a defining moment in the history of Anglo-German relations and a period of considerable cross-cultural interaction between Britain and Germany. The traditional scholarly focus on the rise of Anglo-German antagonism in the period has largely overshadowed the fact that in many ways the two countries simultaneously embraced each other's culture with a striking intensity. The conference examined the vicissitudes of Anglo-German cultural relations in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II and King Edward VII. The conference reflected an ever-growing academic interest in cross-cultural influences and provided a platform to discuss recent insights from historians working on cultural transfers between Britain and Germany on the eve of the First World War. The cultural transfers examined at the conference concentrated on the often neglected fields of arts, sciences, gender, legal culture, popular culture, and colonial culture. The contributions to this conference testified to the wide variety of Anglo-German cultural transfers and their enormous density in the decade before the First World War. Please download a report of the conference. The conference was held to mark the retirement of Professor Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann (University College).
(Above: Delegates at the Wilhelmine Germany and Edwardian Britain Conference).
April
6-8 April
The MEHRC hosted 'Representations of the Past: The Writing of National Histories in Europe', a Humanities programme of the European Science Foundation (ESF) 3rd Cross-Team Conference on 'The Middle Ages and Medievalism in the Writing of National History', which was held on 6-8 April 2006 in New College, Oxford.
This programme, which runs from 2004-8, is a large and very international enterprise dedicated to a sustained and systematic study of the construction, erosion and reconstruction of national histories across a wide variety of European states. Alongside much else, it addresses the central and somewhat paradoxical issue that the professionalization of history as a discipline went with its instrumentalization for a range of often mutually antagonistic national causes. The undertaking is a highly topical and relevant one, both because of the long and successful history of the national paradigm in historiography, and because of its re-emergence as a powerful political tool since the 1990s in the context of the accelerating processes of Europeanization and globalization. National histories form a crucial part of the collective memory of the peoples of Europe. Although the programme is largely concerned with the narratives developed by professional historians, it also considers their impact, political and cultural, at all levels within their given societies and beyond.
Alongside the work of four teams (each of about 15 people), dealing with ‘Institutions, Networks and Communities’, ‘Narrating National Histories’, ‘National Histories and its Interrelation with Regional, European and World Histories’, and ‘Overlapping National Histories’, the programme included one annual cross-team conference devoted to a theme of high relevance to the project, but not directly contained within the work of any of the teams. In spring 2006 this event took place in Oxford. A team of speakers across the continent, largely from outside the programme considered considered aspects of the Middle Ages in the context of national history-writing: how medieval themes were incorporated, adapted, and transformed in the national narratives of the 19C and 20C.
There were ten papers, in five pairs, each of which were followed by a brief commentary. In addition, Dr Lawrence Goldman, Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, spoke on the role of the DNB in relation to national history and national identity. A copy of the programme is available.
(Pictured above: Delegates at the ESF 3rd cross-team conference 'The Middle Ages and Medievalism in the Writing of National History', which was held on 6-8 April 2006 in New College, Oxford).
6-8 April
The MEHRC was pleased to sponsor the Oxford Brookes "'Clerical Fascism' in Interwar Europe" Workshop , which took place on 6-8 April 2006 at Oxford Brookes University. A copy of the preliminary programme and abstracts may be downloaded. For further information, please contact the conference organiser, Dr Marius Turda <mturda@brookes.ac.uk>.
May
6 May
The Oxford-Oslo Workshop on Intellectuals and the Public Sphere: Britain and Scandinavia since the Second World War under the convenorship of Professor Jan Myhre (University of Oslo) and Professor Jose Harris (St. Catherine's College) was held at St. Catherine's College on 6 May 2006. This was the second in a series of workshops which bring together Norwegian and British academics to discuss comparative perspectives on European History in the twentieth century. The aim of the workshop was to bring together current research on, and past recollections of, the interaction of intellectuals and the public sphere in Britain, Norway, and elsewhere, during the decade of the 1960s. The focus of the workshop was on the contribution of intellectuals to debate on public policy in diverse spheres such as economic strategy, higher education, social justice, sexual politics, religion and private morality. The keynote paper was given by Sir Brian Harrison (DNB). A copy of the programme and list of participants may be downloaded. Click here for a report of the workshop.
(Pictured above: Participants at the Oxford-Oslo Workshop on Intellectuals and the Public Sphere: Britain and Scandinavia since the Second World War)
June
12-13 June
A conference on 'Eight Questions on Writing Contemporary History' was held on 12-13 June 2006, in collaboration with the Maison Francaise, and with the support of the British Academy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Europaeum. A copy of the programme. A report on the conference has been published in "XXe siecle. Revue d'histoire".
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(Members of the panel and participants at the 'Eight Questions on Writing Contemporary History' Conference, 12-13 June 2006 at the Maison Francaise D'Oxford)
September
1-2 September
The second Political Violence on genocide, was held in Edinburgh.
29 September - 1 October
Third Political Violence workshop on genocide, held at EUI, Florence.
October
October - December
Oxford-Princeton seminar on reconstruction in Europe and East Asia after 1945.
30 October
A Doctoral Study Day on 'Memory Studies: New Fields, New Perspectives' took place on 30 October 2006 at the Maison Francaise, Oxford. This event was organised by Rebecca Clifford, St. Antony'sCollege Oxford, and Sarah Gensburger, Sciences-Po Centre for European Studies. Papers were given by a number of graduate students. A copy of the progamme may be downloaded. A report will be available shortly.
(Pictured above: Paarticipants at the Doctoral Study Day, 30 October 2006)
November
A conference on 'Remembering 1956: De-Stalinization and Suez after Fifty Years' took place at St. Antony's College and the European Studies Centre on 10-11 November 2006.
The conference, sponsored by the European Humanities Research Centre, the European Studies Centre, the Modern European History Research Centre, and New College, Oxford, and convened by Professor Jane Caplan and Professor Catriona Kelly, addressed two key historical events with global resonance that took place in 1956: Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin in his secret speech to the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Suez crisis. Both these events dramatically reshaped the world in the decades following, and their effects can still be felt in international relations today. The conference brought together political and cultural historians working on a range of European and non-European cultures.
A keynote lecture by Professor Arne Westad considered the overall significance of 1956 and its status as a historical and political event. Other speakers included: Polly Jones, Mark Pittaway, Zbigniew Pelczynski, Marie-Claire Lavabre, Michael Kenny, Holger Nehring, John Darwin, Laura James, Tony Shaw and Avi Shlaim. The conference concluded with a session at which eyewitnesses of the events of 1956 spoke, and where the status of eyewitness testimony as a historical source was discussed.
Please refer to http://users.ox.ac.uk/~conf1956 for a copy of the programme. A report on the conference is available.
December
15-16 December
First Europeanization workshop with Berlin historians.
2005
April
8-10 April, 'Generations in European History Conference'
The Modern European History Research Centre was pleased to support the Generations in European History Conference, which took place in New College, Oxford (8-10 April 2005).
For further information, please refer to the conference website http://users.ox.ac.uk/~genconf/
19 April
The MEHRC, in collaboration with the Forum of Contemporary History, Oslo University, held the first of a series of workshops in Oxford on 19 April 2005. The Gender and Citizenship Workshop explored the evolutions in concepts of citizenship from the inter-war years to the present day.
Panel 1: Models of Citizenship
Panel 2: Work, Marriage, Welfare
Panel 3: Political Perspectives
The convenor was Dr Jane Caplan (St. Antony's College, Oxford). Participants included:
Jose Harris (Oxford), Martin Conway (Oxford), Kathryn Gleadle (Oxford), Alice Kessler-Harris (Columbia University, New York), Even Lange (Oslo University), Iselin Theien (Oslo University), Gro Hagemann (Oslo Unviersity), Jane Lewis (London School of Economics), Kari Melby (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Kirsti Niskanen (Linkoping University, Sweden)
Oxford-Oslo Workshop participants, 19 April 2005
May
29-31 May, 'Europeanisation and History'
A delegation of historians from the MEHRC participated in a joint exploratory conference held by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Berlin office, on Europeanisation and History: Concepts, Conflicts, Cohesion, which took place in Berlin on 29-31 May 2005. The Oxford participants included Professor Robert Evans, Dr Martin Conway, Professor Jose Harris, Dr Tom Buchanan, Dr John Davis, Dr Patricia Clavin, Dr Robert Gerwarth, Mr Holger Nehring and Dr Jessica Irons. Papers were also given by participants from Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. Discussions sought to address both the conceptual and the empirical dimensions of Europeanisation. A well-attended public evening debate involving Professor Robert Evans (Oxford), Professor Ute Frevert (Yale) and Professor Kartmut Kaeble (Humboldt) communicated the theme of the confererence to a broader public. The conference was funded by the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung and supported by the DFG and the MEHRC
Further information may be obtained by downloading a copy of a report on the conference by Dr Martin Conway (Research Director, MEHRC). A report on the conference by Marc Schalenberg (Humboldt University) has also been published in German History Vol. 24 No. 1.
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Participants at the Berlin Conference, 29-31 May 2005
July
8-9 July, 'Paris and the Right'
Paris and the Right Workshop.
Certain images of Paris have become iconic symbols for the left: the victorious celebrations of the Popular Front in summer 1936, the euphoric crowds of the Liberation, and the youthful rebels on the barricades of the Latin Quarter in May 1968. But what associations have been created between Paris and the right in the twentieth century? How have right-wing leaders and writers described the history and people of Paris, mobilised their supporters in the streets, and claimed the city as their own? These were the questions that provided the initial impetus for the organisation of a two-day research workshop on 'Paris and the right in the twentieth century' on 8-9 July 2005. A joint project between the MEHRC and the Maison Française d'Oxford, the workshop was designed to be both international and interdisciplinary: a forum for French and British researchers in history, literature and political science. With papers on popular mobilisation by the extreme right, Gaullist control of the streets and the media, and the imagination of Paris by Charles Maurras and Robert Brasillach, the workshop illuminated the social networks and political geography of the right in a Parisian context. As well as highlighting parallels and divergences between the street action of left and right, and the changing political affiliations of different quarters (not least the Latin Quarter), discussion also focused on the relationship between the personal trajectories of right-wing authors and their imagination of the Parisian and national community.
The workshop was made possible by the generous support of the Institut Français, the Maison Française d'Oxford, the MEHRC, and the Modern History Faculty. The proceedings will be published early in 2007. Click here for an account of the workshop. http://www.mfo.ac.uk/Publications/sommaireactes.htm
30 Sep - 1 Oct, 'Political Violence workshop on Terrorism in C20 Europe'
Terrorism in Twentieth-Century Europe Workshop
In order to establish an international platform for researchers working in the field of twentieth-century political violence, the MEHRC, in conjunction with the European University Institute Florence and the School of History and Classics of the University of Edinburgh, is organising a series of three workshops in 2005-06 in each of the participating institutions. Each of these workshops will be focussed on a distinct aspect of political violence ('Terrorism', 'Genocide' and 'War'). Each workshop will bring together doctoral and postdoctoral students as well as Faculty members drawn from these institutions. In addition, a number of 'outside' academics will be invited to attend individual workshops on the basis of their particular research expertise. The first workshop, Terrorism in Twentieth-Century Europe, took place at Corpus Christi, Oxford, on 30 September - 1 October 2005. Click here to obtain the programme.This event was generously sponsored by the British Academy. The workshop series' convenors are Dr Donald Bloxham (Edinburgh), Professor Gerhard Haupt (Florence) and Dr Robert Gerwarth (Oxford).
October
18 October, 'Witchcraft Day Workshop'
The MEHRC was pleased to sponsor the Witchcraft Day Workshop, which was held on Tuesday, 18 October in the Hovenden Room, All Souls College. For further information, please contact Professor Lyndal Roper <lyndal.roper@balliol.ox.ac.uk>.
For further information of any of these events, please contact <teena.stabler@history.ox.ac.uk>
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