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From: Tim Kirk <[log in to unmask]>
CULTURAL CONQUESTS 1500-2000
AN INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM
PRAGUE, 11.9. - 14.9. 2003
organised by
The Seminar of Comparative and General History at Charles University in
Prague and The European Urban History group at the Universities of
Northumbria and Newcastle upon Tyne (UK)
Conquerors of all kinds have made not only political and economic
demands on the defeated, but have repeatedly also attempted to impose
new cultures on them, and such attempts to impose a new cultural order
were felt nowhere more keenly than in the towns and cities where
intellectuals, academics, publicists and other members of the
political, social and cultural elites were required to conform. We are
interested in the motives for the imposition of a new cultural order,
the ways in which citizens resisted or collaborated with the victors or
occupying forces, and the ways in which the direct experience of war or
civil conflict and military occupation were reflected in urban
cultures. The geographical and chronological focus of the conference
will be Europe between c.1500 and the present.
The following are examples of potential themes which papers might
address:
Religious Conquests
The forcible conversion of citizens to a new faith or confession in the
wake of religious conflicts, from, say, the christianisation of Europe
and the reconquest of Spain to the forced conversions of imperial
Russia.
Revolutionary Order
The attempts to re-invent cultures in the wake of revolution, e.g. the
London of the Commonwealth, urban America in the eighteenth century,
Paris, Petrograd.
Annexation and Nation-Building
The cultural consequences, successful or otherwise of defeat,
annexation and incorporation into a hitherto foreign state, e.g. the
Christian cities of the Balkans in the Ottoman empire, the divergent
experiences of (e.g.) Krakow and Warsaw in eighteenth/nineteenth -
century Poland, Strasbourg between France and Germany. This theme might
include papers which examine the imposition of national standards in
language, customs and cultural tastes, and the competition between
national and local/regional in cultural expression. (E.g. the tension
between Catalan and Spanish culture).
Occupation
Culture and everyday life under a foreign power. Papers might look at
military occupation and its impact on the civilian population; or
compare attempts to annihilate some forms of cultural expression
entirely (including, for example, dialect or local languages) while
accommodating others within a broader 'imperial' conformity such as
that of fascist Europe under the Nazi new order.
Cold-War Cultures
The impact of the indirect cultural hegemony of a superpower on the
development of European cities during the Cold War. Papers might
consider general developments such as the Americanisation of western
Europe and resistance to it, or the attempts to align national cultural
traditions in eastern Europe with the cultural and political
assumptions of Soviet communism.
Other suggestions are welcome.
We anticipate that there will be no more than around forty participants
at the colloquium. Papers will be 25 minutes and grouped in sessions to
allow time for discussion. The language of the colloquium will be
English.
Please send a short abstract [c.200 words] of your proposal to Dr Tim
Kirk, School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle, Barras
Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1, UK: e-mail: [log in to unmask]
The colloquium will be hosted by the Institute of World History at
Charles University in Prague (Dr Lud'a Klusakova).
Registration Fee (colloquium and refreshments 11,12,13 September): 50
Euros (full), 20 Euros (postgraduates etc).
Accommodation will be available at reasonable cost in University
Residences.
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