Society Conferences – International Society for First World War Studies

Once every two years (or thereabouts), we have held a conference. At these events, we aim to put our principles and priorities into action. Our conferences are friendly, rich in new research, constructive and conversational. We put postgrads and postdocs at the heart of them. Often the conferences have been organised by a local team of postgrads, who have taken us in innovative directions. The conference papers are circulated in advance, and then discussants summarise and comment on the papers at the conference, followed by a reply from the author. This leaves the maximum amount of time for discussing the ideas with the other conference participants.

For the most part, the authors who have presented their work have been in the early stages of their career, whilst discussants have tended to be more established members of the academic community. But this is not necessarily the case, and anyone with new research to share and discuss is welcome. We never have parallel sessions at our conferences. We prefer to have everyone, and every type of First World War scholar, in the same room to share their perspectives.