CONFLICT. CfP for the ASMCF-SSFH PG Study Day 2018

3 March 2018

The Institute of Modern Languages Research

University of London,

Keynote: Emile Chabal (Edinburgh)

Deadline for abstracts: January 12 2018

Contemporary society is riven by conflict, be it in the public, political or intellectual arena. Even a cursory glance at current news headlines appears to confirm such an assessment, with Donald Trump’s increasingly bellicose rhetoric, the War on Terror, the rise of the far right in France and elsewhere, Brexit, and the Catalonian independence debate, to offer but a few examples. 2018 also marks the centenary of the signing of the Armistice of 1918, fifty years since May ’68 and 170 years since the revolution of 1848. Within such a context, the aim of this Study Day will be to reflect upon conflict in its various manifestations in the French and Francophone world, be they conflicts of gender, class, race, language or ideology. How has conflict been imagined, represented and commemorated throughout French history and culture? How have the experiences of those caught up in conflicts been expressed and interpreted? What strategies have been conceived to resolve conflict?

We would like to invite proposals for twenty-minute papers in English or French that reflect on the theme of ‘Conflict’ from a variety of disciplinary perspectives within the broad spectrum that the two organising societies encompass: French and francophone history, as well as society and culture from 1789 to the present (literature, politics, linguistics, film, philosophy, etc.).

Suggested topics might include, but are by no means limited to:

• War
• Trauma
• Commemorating/remembering conflict
• Empire/postcolonialism
• Mental health
• Intergenerational conflict
• Visual cultures
• Intermediality
• Literary quarrels
• Private/public
• Public policy
• Class conflict
• Language in conflict
• Conflict resolution