“Following the first call for proposals sent in September 2016, we would like now to complete the program in some categories of sessions :
- One major theme dealing with methodology.
- Joint Sessions
- Round Tables.
(…)”
“Following the first call for proposals sent in September 2016, we would like now to complete the program in some categories of sessions :
(…)”
“The International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS) – Comité international des sciences historiques (CISH) – has been founded in Geneva on May 15, 1926. Today, the organization encompasses a total of fifty-seven countries.
The ICHS includes two sorts of organizations. First of all, there are the National Committees formed in each country from their individual centers for historical research. In addition, International Commissions specializing in particular fields of history (some known as ‘International Affiliated Organizations’ and others as Internal Commissions) have formed over the years.
The major occupation of the ICHS is the Congress, held every five years. The Committee shall hold a General Assembly at least every three years. Each Congress shall be immediately preceded and followed by a General Assembly.
A Board is responsible for the functioning and co-ordination of ICHS activities. Please, see the constitution of ICHS. (…)”
“In 2020, during the XXIIIrd Congress held in Poznań, the General Assembly of ICHS will choose the place where the XXIVth International Congress of Historical Sciences will be hosted.
Organized every five years, the ICHS Congress is a major stage in the life and the development of our institution. We can hope, thanks to a good promotion, to attract between 1,500 and 3,000 delegates coming from at least 100 countries. The ICHS Congress is a very large scale enterprise which requires an important financial support and a rigorous management. But the potential benefits are considerable. The Congress offers to the City host a unique opportunity to promote the scientific works of the local historians and to confirm its cultural standing. The Congress should also result in an increased interest for the discipline and for ICHS in the concerned region.
The participants will expect a high level academic program. Famous participants can bring a considerable prestige to the Congress, whereas well prepared professional visits and cultural excursions before or after the Congress can contribute in an important way to the global success of the event. (…)”
For its forthcoming participation in the International Congress of Historical Sciences in Poznan, Poland in 2020, the International Association for the Study of Contemporary Europe is organising three conferences on the theme : « Europe in the 20th century – An Asymmetric Europe ».
European history of the twentieth century has been characterised by an alternation between common European projects and a questioning of such projects, often vehemently, through alternative visions. To borrow an expression from an American president, the vicissitudes of the European continent’s history have led to a significant difference between the « Old Europe » and that which took shape at the end of the First World War, referred to either as « Central Europe » for some, « Eastern Europe » for others, even sometimes « East-Central » or « Danubian » Europe. The divergences between these « two Europes », as Francis Delaisi first pointed out in the inter-war years, are striking and manifest themselves throughout the twentieth century. They are present in the Versailles system, and throughout the Hitlerian project for Europe. They are still present during the Cold War.
The conferences that will take place leading up to the 2020 International Congress of Historical Sciences intend to explore this asymmetry. Have these projects influenced interpretations of European history ? Did they present Europe as a homogeneous entity? Or as a differentiated entity? Which interpretation is most current in Western Europe ? And Eastern Europe ? The idea will be to cross-compare these different currents.
The first conference on this theme will take place in Moscow from 6-8 December 2018. It will be focussed on : « Ideologies during the Second World War».
This conference is organised around several questions. First it is interested in the Hitlerian project for Europe. National-socialist plans were different for West and East Europe. Their application in different European spaces demonstrates this differentiated vision of Europe. Integration in a Nazi Europe was equally variegated (incorporation here, occupation there or satellitisation). Several works exist on these aspects. In the context of this conference we wish to favour a comparative approach, which is often fruitful for historiography if one confronts narratives and interpretations. The different experiences in the East and West offer a wide variety of perspectives.
But it is equally important to question the European projects of the Allies, of governments in exile or resistance movements. There too asymmetry exists and the different contexts lead either to uniform projects or infra-regional projects for the organisation of Europe.
John Keiger / Sylvain Schirmann / Tomaz Schramm
Proposals should include the title of the paper, a summary of the argument in a maximun of 3500 characters. It should be accompanied by a short cv giving career, present occupation and a list of the author’s publications.
Proposals should be written in either French or English.
The selection panel will notify applicants of their success or failure by the end of June 2018.
A second conference will look at the asymmetry of the Versailles system. It will take place in Paris at the Scientific Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences from 20-22 June 2019. A call for papers will go out nearer the date.
Ce colloque porte sur la naissance d’une discipline, l’histoire des relations internationales, qui est née de l’effervescence intellectuelle qui a marqué la première guerre mondiale. Ni mausolée à la mémoire de deux historiens français, ni récit hagiographique d’une « école » historique française, le colloque aura pour objectif de replacer le parcours intellectuel et académique des deux historiens dans les débats intellectuels de leur temps. La construction méthodique de ce nouveau champ académique sera examinée dans le cadre d’une approche transnationale et comparative.
On 23 June the British people will vote in a referendum on the country’s membership of the European Union, the latest chapter of a dialogue which has been characterised by competing visions of what ‘Europe’ is to Britain: ‘friend’ or ‘foe’. This dynamic is one which has pervaded British perceptions of mainland Europe throughout the modern era, from fears of invasion and hopes of internationalism during the nineteenth century, through the world wars, and into membership of the EEC in 1973. Both centuries also saw growing involvement with Europe on a personal level, as improved communications and travel increasingly allowed Britons to view the countries and cultures of Continent through the media or ‘invasions’ of their own, as soldiers, traders or tourists. Throughout, British perceptions of the Continent have experienced both profound change, and remarkable continuity.
This conference seeks to offer a long view of Britain’s relationship with the Continent, focusing on how Britons perceived and understood their mainland neighbours. This topic can be addressed from either the elite or popular perspective, and can deal with the idea of Europe as a whole or British views of individual European countries.
Papers might discuss, but are not limited to:
Please submit abstracts of c.300 words with a short biography by 29 July 2016 to Adam Rolewicz or Peter Keeling.
International History Conference. Paris, June 8-10, 2017.
Deadline : 1st June 2016
Co-organizers: L. Badel (Professor, Panthéon Sorbonne University), R. Frank (Professor Emeritus, Panthéon Sorbonne University), A. Marès (Professor, Panthéon Sorbonne University), G.-H. Soutou (Professor Emeritus, Académie des sciences morales et politiques), M. Vaïsse (Professor Emeritus, Institut d’études politiques, Paris).
Supported by the Labex EHNE, the BDIC and the Mission du Centenaire
As is well known, the First World War influenced the lives of Pierre Renouvin and Jean-Baptiste Duroselle. It left its mark on their personal, institutional and academic lives. Aged twenty four, the former was seriously injured at the Chemin des Dames in 1917. The latter was born in that very year and would be « haunted » his whole life long by the memory of the Grande Guerre des Français to which he devoted his last book in 1994. A generation separates them but both their names are brought together on the title page of the book Introduction à l’histoire des relations internationales published in1964. This book is dedicated to a field, which, as with other humanities and social sciences, was born from the intellectual turmoil that marked the First World War. Neither intended to be a mausoleum in memory of both French historians, nor an hagiographic account of a specific French historical « school », this conference aims to situate the intellectual and academic career of these two historians within the intellectual debates. It will focus on the birth and the development of an academic area: the History of International Relations.The methodical building of this new academic area will be thoroughly examined, in particular through its interaction with other fields of the human and social sciences.
The careers of P. Renouvin and J.-B. Duroselle cannot be isolated from their social and political environment. Far from being confined to an ivory tower, they took part in the intellectual battles which left their mark on these decades (such as the criticism from Lucien Febvre or Marcel Merle). Deeply rooted within a French and Francophone field, they built transnational academic and political networks, which extended beyond France and Europe. Historians firmly engaged in the debates of their time (the responsibility of Germany in the outbreak of the First World War; the Cold War; European construction), they practised an instant history, at the heart of the institutional struggles in France or worked to resolve them. Thus in order to understand fully their distinctiveness these two historians need to be studied in the context in which they lived, worked and taught. Having principally devoted their research and reflexions to Europe and its peoples, they did not however neglect other continents. Academics, but teachers first of all, they taught whole generations in France and abroad who were indelibly marked by their lectures. As researchers, they opened up research paths that their students have followed and deepened. Members of the intellectual establishment of their time, both men accumulated honours and responsibilities: their political networks will be brought to light.
At the beginning of a twenty-first century marked by the flourishing of global history, this conference will be the place for a free and specific debate on the character, subjects, sources and particular approaches of international history. This conference aims to offer a comparative and transnational approach of their itineraries, combining a thematic and a biographical approach. We particularly welcome papers from foreign historians and scholars from other academic fields.
Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to :
The wars and their influence upon:
The institutionalization of international relations, a mark of the new influence of the United States?
Sources, publishing and teamwork
Translation, transmission and reception
The construction of an academic field: the history of international relations
Europe and the world
Public action of both French scholars
These topics are not restrictive and each submission will be considered carefully.
The conference languages will be English and French
Regardless of language, all proposals will receive due consideration.
The deadline for paper proposals is: 1 June 2016
Please send your proposal (abstract in English or French of no more than 500 words and short CV) to Andrea Martignoni: martignoni.andrea@yahoo.fr
Laurence Badel (professor, Panthéon Sorbonne University), Andrew Barros (professor, Université du Québec à Montréal), Eric Bussière (director, UMR Sorbonne-IRICE), Antoine Fleury (professor emeritus, Geneva University), Robert Frank (professor emeritus, Panthéon Sorbonne University), John Keiger (professor, Cambridge University), Peter Jackson (professor, Glasgow University), Thomas Maissen (director, Deutsches Historisches Institut, Paris), Antoine Marès (professor, Panthéon Sorbonne University), Antoine Prost (president, scientific board of the Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine, Paris), Matthias Schulz (professor, Geneva University), Georges-Henri Soutou (professor emeritus, Académie des sciences morales et politiques, Paris), Arnold Suppan (professor, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien), Valérie Tesnière (director, Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine, Paris), Maurice Vaïsse (professor emeritus, Institut d’études politiques, Paris), Antonio Varsori (professor, Padova University), Andreas Wirsching (director, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, München).
Traditionally the decades of the first half of the 20th century appear as a period of nationalization
and de-globalization, and seems to be true also for the region East Central Europe. After World War I (Nation)states such as Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were (re)established after the monarchies of the Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns, and Romanovs had fallen apart. Wilsonian idealism, promoting national self-determination, gained a fertile ground. The 1930s were dominated by the Great Depression, autarkic economic policies and nationalist ideologies. Following World War II and in an ex-post perspective, these “national” lines of development were made more prominent in historical narratives
so that the whole period seemed as a “road from war to war”. In this reductionist view, aspects of continuities across the apparent historical breaks of 1914 / 18 or 1939 / 45 often are marginalized. What about the sense for the beginning of a “New Europe” in a “New World” after the break-up of the empires, or the openness of the moment felt by contemporaries once the wars were over? How changed the conditions under which people migrated? How enterprises gained new markets? How cultural exchange was revived? How territorialization processes were globalized? A transnational perspective can help to find answers concerning the region and the period under question in the conference.
Minutes of the General Assembly,
University of Cambridge
West Road 7
Department of Politics and International Studies
Room G 2
17 October 2015 – 14 H. 30
Professor John Keiger, President of the Association, welcomed the members present and evoked the memory of Jacques Bariéty, President of the Association from 1983 to 2010, who died in 2014. He then referred to the conservation of the AIHCE archives in the possession of Mr. Bariéty by the Quai d’Orsay Diplomatic Archives housed at La Courneuve. Following a request by the services of the Archives on the modalities of the consultation, the President sought the opinion of the General Assembly. It was decided to make the AIHCE archives available for consultation, provided that such a request is addressed to the President of the AIHCE.
Professor John Keiger then moved to item 1 of the agenda.
The Chair detailed:
He then presented the scientific activities and emphasized the publication of both the proceedings of the Amsterdam Symposium (under the direction of Profs. Fleury, Kovacs, Schramm and Knipping), and the proceedings of Luxembourg (under the direction of Charles Barthel). These proceedings were published in the collection of the Association “Europe and the Europes”, Peter Lang. Two scientific events were held in Munich in January 2011 and Cambridge in October 2015. The latter event will lead to publication in the collection of the Association.
He then highlighted the work of website renovation undertaken by Frédéric Clavert (Lecturer at Lausanne), whose responsiveness and competence he praised. We thus have a suitable website. It is now time to populate it.
Finally the president explained his development of contacts with the Association of young researchers in European history (RICHIE) and notably Christian Wenkel. Regular meetings have taken place to link both assoications’ websites, to consider the integration of RICHIE members into the AIHCE and its activities. This cooperation has resulted in the election of RICHIE representatives to the executive committee of the AIHCE.
The floor was then given to Professor Chantal Metzger, Treasurer of the Association. She recalled the difficulties related to the change of banks and set out the financial situation. She distributed to the members present a financial statement. It is attached to these minutes.
On October 14th, 2015:
She then raised the question of the cost of subscriptions. It was proposed to renew these at the following levels:
It was also decided that contributions would not be taken for 2015, given the lack of activities, but begin from 2016.
The General Assembly unanimously voted through the Treasurer’s presentation of the accounts.
A number of members of the board did not stand for re-election: Profs. Franz Knipping, Horst Möller, Ion Bulei, Dusan Kovacs, Charles Barthel, and Jean-François Fayet. The other officers remained candidates for their succession: John Keiger, Chantal Metzger, Bruna Bagnato, Evgenia Obitchina Christine Manigand, Thomas Schramm, Frank Hadler, Jean-François Eck and Sylvain Schirmann.
Three colleagues sent letters of candidacy: Emmanuel MOURLON-DRUOL (University of Glasgow), Frédéric Clavert (University of Lausanne) and Gjergely Fejérdy (University of Budapest).
A debate took place on the absence of representatives from some European areas and of historians of Europe based outside Europe. It was decided that the Executive Committee should proceed by co-option to expand the committee to include colleagues in these areas. Contacts are to be made with colleagues working on areas from Central and Eastern Europe to the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia and to non-European colleagues. Prof Frank Hadler intends to sound out colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe. Suggestions were made for Spain (Munez, St Jacques de Compostela) and Portugal (José Magone). The next board meeting will take stock of these contacts and make the decision to welcome new entrants.
Following open discussion the GA passed to a vote on the renewal of officers of the Association. Are renewed unanimously the nominees listed here: Keiger J., C. Metzger, B. Bagnato, Manigand C., E. Obitchina, T. Schramm, F. Hadler, JF Eck, S. Schirmann. Were unanimously elected for the first time to the board: E. Mourlon-Druol, Clavert F., G. Fejérdy
The newly elected board then allocated functions. Are appointed as follows:
See point 2 above.
The officers wished to establish the minimum of an annual meeting of the executive committee. This could take place in an easily accessible city (capital cities, eg London, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, etc.).
Three important points were raised:
In conclusion all participants stressed the need for the renewal of activities to continue and to be on a regular basis.
Professor John Keiger, president of the Association, having confirmed that all items on the agenda had been discussed thanked those present and closed the General Assembly of the AIHCE at 1600 hours.
Workshop 16-17 October 2015, University of Cambridge, Department of Politics and International Studies, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge
Workshop 16-17 October 2015, University of Cambridge, Department of Politics and International Studies, Alison Richard Building, West Road, Cambridge
This workshop is part of a major four-year AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK) funded research project entitled ‘Networks and Actors in the British and French Foreign Ministries : Responses to the Idea of European Integration, 1919-1957’, conducted by Prof John Keiger (Cambridge University) and Prof. Gaynor Johnson (Kent University).
The thesis which this project seeks to test is that in both the British and French foreign ministries from the end of the First World War – when ideas of European integration gained ascendancy as a means to international security and prosperity – to the establishment of the European communities in 1957, permanent officials were at least as important as their political masters in promoting or blocking the path towards some form of European integration. Two principal research questions emerge from the project:
The workshop is intended to broaden this approach to other European foreign ministries across the whole of twentieth century Europe, broadly conceived, either through comparative perspectives or single state studies.
Papers of 20 minutes duration might consider, for instance :
organisation of foreign ministries or their reform
education and background of permanent officials and diplomats
networks and sociability in the diplomatic world
schools or academies of diplomatic preparation, training and competitive exams
impact of the European ideal on permanent officials
influence of other government departments or agencies (finance, commerce, defence, central banks etc) on policies for European integration
the policy-making process in foreign ministries
bureaucratic politics and policy blocking tactics in foreign ministries.
The working languages of the workshop will be French and English. Please send abstracts (one page A4) of your paper in either English or French, with a brief cv, to jk586@cam.ac.uk by 15 August 2015. An editorial panel will select the papers.
Bruxelles, Académie Royale de Belgique (Cycle du Collège Belgique). 20-21 mars 2015.
Laurence BADEL, Professeur à Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne: Pratiques diplomatiques et « nouvelles relations internationales »
10h15-10h45 – Pause-café
Présidence : John KEIGER (Université de Cambridge).
Déjeuner 13h-14h15
Présidence : Philippe RAXHON (Université de Liège)
16h30-17h00 – Pause-café
Sous la présidence de Christian LEQUESNE (Sciences Po / CERI).
Avec la participation de :
Pause : 10h45-11h15
Déjeuner 12h45-14h15
Présidence : Michel DUMOULIN (Université Catholique de Louvain)
Poland, Krzyzowa Foundation, 6-11 September 2012
Organized by RICHIE Association (http ://www.europe-richie.org/) the University of Paris-Sorbonne(http ://www.paris-sorbonne.fr/), the University of Hildesheim, (www.uni-hildesheim.de/), with the support of Université franco-allemande
Deadline for applications: 10 June 2012
The Summer School is opened to Masters and Doctoral students studying European history in the XIXth and XXth centuries. The key methodology of the conference will be that of historical analysis, however the Summer School welcomes researchers from other disciplines (sociology, political science, economy, law, etc.). Summer School participants will not qualify for ECTS credits.
“Europeanization” will be the central topic of the Summer School. Historians have defined Europeanization as a “a gradual process of political, economic and cultural convergence leading to the increasing development of similarities in European societies” (J. Grossman, J. Niesser, T. Schneider, Synthesis of the Summer School: Towards a European Society?
Convergence and Divergence in 20th Century). This process needs to be understood in conjunction with the overall structural transformations that took place in the XIXth and XXth centuries as a result of internal and external pressures. Instead of considering the wars of the XXth as markers of a new era, we approach the second half of the XIXth century as laying the foundations of modern globalization. As such, the process of Europeanization should be understood as the mutual interaction of national, international, global and trans-national dynamics, without excluding local dynamics.
Proposals for presentations might deal with the following non-exhaustive topics:
The Summer School will take place at the Krzyzowa Foundation in Poland. Transport between Wroclaw and Kreisau, accommodation, catering and social events will be provided by the Organization Committee. Travel expenses will be covered for up to 100 euros (please keep receipts).
The Summer School’s Scientific Committee is composed of internationally recognised academics, including: Eric Bussière (Paris IV- Sorbonne University), Michael Gehler (Hildesheim University), John Keiger (Salford University), Léonard Laborie (CNRS) and Konstanty Wojtaszczyk (Warsaw University).
Members of the Organization Committee are Noël Bonhomme (Paris IV Sorbonne), Anna Konieczna (Sciences Po Paris), Céline Paillette (Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), Karolina Pietras (Paris IV-Sorbonne).
If you wish to participate in the Summer School, please email us at ecole2012@europe- richie.org. Please include the following documents with your email (.doc or pdf files only).
Your presentation proposal (500 words maximum);
Successful applicants will be contacted in end-June 2012. The working languages of the conference will be French and German however a good command of English is required.
The project called « Ces chers voisins » has generated a series of conferences, workshops and publications since 2006. In this context, a new project entitled « Ports et fleuves » (Ports and Rivers) has been conceived. As its name indicates, the idea is to take into account an economic component that, on the one hand, plays a central role in the GDP of the countries under consideration and, on the other hand, is conducive to create a melting pot of cultures and to be stimulated by it at the same time.
Serving as interface between overseas territories and European hinterlands, the ports of the European north-west shoreline are places of transfer for material goods. This makes them trading posts of the West, whose symbolic importance is as immense today as it was in the past.
Ports are settling places for alien as well as specific communities, e.g. the Jewish one, from which social and cultural influences spread. They are venues on which so many migrants converge to embark, transforming them into cosmopolitan crossroads of the “Wretched of the Earth”. They constitute a source of inspiration for a multitude of long-hauled, imaginary journeys.
Representing specific challenges in terms of political, economic and social governance, the ports that will be considered – from Le Havre to Bremen via Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and London – are mainly located in the mouth or upstream of the mouth of important rivers, from the Seine to the Elbe, including the «Golden Delta» (the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Rhine), and the Weser.
There is a vast body of literature dedicated to port cities and rivers considered on an individual basis. However, studies adopting a comparative or transnational perspective on the subject are few. Likewise, no research has been published yet on the Hinterlands and the spaces they constitute, except for older periods.
Taking a long period of time into consideration, this project aims to “Europeanize” the issues that will be dealt with. The purpose is to highlight the respective convergences and divergences in order to ensure a better understanding of the common features forming the complex interplay of competition, or collaboration at times, between these centers of economic activity.
As the scientific literature adopting a comparative and cross-disciplinary approach remains almost silent on the topic, this project intends to tackle the question of multicultural intermixing, using a number of different approaches to convey both the complexity and the appeal of this issue. In order to achieve this, it is essential to foster a fruitful collaboration between several disciplines, as it was the case in the context of “Ces chers voisins”. Likewise, today’s questions express the need for a dialogue to take place with policy makers and economic and social decision makers, who are imbued with a culture that shapes the very strong port identity they embody.
A few examples of the research areas this project aims to explore are the scientific, technical, and educational fields through, for instance, the creation of research and educational establishments (tropical medicine, shipbuilding industry, trade, etc.), geographical societies, institutes for the study of Asian arts, or even zoological gardens.
Port cities have a tradition of hosting international exhibitions and Olympic Games (Antwerp, Amsterdam, London), but they are also used to welcome congresses and attract tourists as seaside resorts, bringing together the “élites circulantes” (traveling elites). Moreover, they played a decisive role in the import of sports such as football. Similarly, the idea that exotic cooking practices have been imported via port cities should be examined.
This research will make good use of the existing literary, iconographic and architectural heritage (including colonial monuments, military architecture, banks, etc. all considered as “lieux de memoires”). Attention will be paid to the variety of printed and unpublished sources, both private and public ones. Someone will be in charge of the general management of the project and will ensure the coordination among the different areas of research to guarantee the cross-disciplinary relations between the different fields of study. The approach will make sure that case studies are not analyzed individually but examined together. Their results will be compared in workshops in order to bring out the common features and differences between the cultures of port cities, while paying attention to the areas in which these convergences or divergences are noticeable. The ultimate step is of course to try to understand why, when, and how these common features and differences appeared and developed.
The operational interest of this project lies in the fact that it is launched by a cohesive group of researchers from Germany, England, Belgium, France, Luxemburg, and The Netherlands who have already cooperated and collaborated actively together and share a great desire to 1) intensify the collaborative process that exists among them, 2) foster the comparative study of the European north-west shoreline by examining a number of Baltic and Adriatic ports.
Professor Michel Dumoulin
27 January 2011
Prof. Michel Dumoulin and Prof. Hubert Roland (Université catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve) are the kingpins of the project, together with the Historiches Seminar II from the University of Köln (Prof. Jürgen Elvert) and the Frontières, Acteurs, Représentations de l’Europe research center from the Université de Strasbourg (Prof. Sylvain Schirmann), in collaboration with numerous other research centers from Paris I, Paris IV, Lille 3, Luxemburg, Liège, and KU Leuven. It is already intended to establish cooperation with the following institutions: the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven (German National Maritime Museum), the National Maritime Museum Greenwich and the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.