Virtual 2021

Call for Papers

The International Society for First World War Studies is happy to announce its 12th conference to be hosted virtually through Gettysburg College (USA) on 16-18 September 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic has uprooted both traditional means of scholarship and teaching and has placed increased emphasis on technology and technological adaptation. As our lives and our society of scholars has been impacted by the pandemic, this is an opportunity to re-examine the role of technology, both as part of the history of the First World War, but also in its representations and memory. Our virtual conference theme will be on technology (broadly understood), both related to the war itself, as well as the importance of technology to understanding its legacy.

Themes of the conference include:

• Technology and adaptation during the war. Topics may include, but are not limited to, photography, mapping, communications, weapons systems, medical practice, logistics and supply, etc.
• Technological failure
• Technocrats and innovation
• The ethics of military technology
• Material culture and technology in wartime
• Technology in artistic expressions and representation
• The business of technology
• Technology and pedagogy of the war
• The war’s digital turn: representation and media beyond the centenary
• The use of social media and digital public history in FWW studies
• Representations in video/computer games
• Collaboration of Digital Humanities and FWW studies
• The next 100 years of FWW studies: technology shaping/educating/informing the public perception of the war in the 21st century.

Conference Format: We will follow the format of circulating the papers ahead of the conference and forming panels from individual paper submissions. Each panel will consist of two to three paper authors, a discussant for each paper, and a chair that will offer a summary commentary of each panel. All presenters and attendees will be expected to become members of the Society before the conference date. The working languages of the conference will be French and English. Sessions will be conducted via Zoom. The committee will make every attempt to accommodate different time zones in the scheduling of sessions.

Paper Selection: Potential presenters are encouraged to submit a 300 word abstract (in French or English) of their paper accompanied by a one-page CV by April 1, 2021. If selected, presenters must submit their final papers for circulation by July 1, 2021. Papers should not exceed 8000 words.

A virtual conference hosted at Gettysburg College, Gettysburg PA (USA), 16-18 September 2021.