Conferences

The Making of Landscapes in Modernity

11th and 12th May 2012
University of St Andrews

The processes of industrialisation and urbanisation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reshaped topographies across the globe and helped create a new polarity (perceived or otherwise) between the urban and the rural. This was often represented in art, which frequently idealised a bygone era of a rural past. In the process of this, nature was transformed into landscape. Of central importance were the shifts in perception from (usable, agrarian) land to landscape. Furthermore, the emergence of nationalism and its corresponding polities made the search for the distinct character of certain states, countries, and regions imperative. Landscapes (local, regional, and transnational) became ‘nationalised’ as part of the quest for a national canon. However, some ruralist movements were often linked to primordial notions of nationhood, and also to more general ideas on modernity and the problems related to it. In this sense, there existed an interesting juxtaposition between the modern nature of nationalism and the pursuit for the old and established as manifested in landscapes. In addition, more remote regions became the object of desire for scientists, travellers, the state, intellectuals and others alike. They acted as canvasses onto which problems of late modern societies, ideas of nationally authentic characteristics, and images of the curious other were projected. While this discovery of landscape certainly played an important role for nationalism, it thus also acted as a vehicle for both regional and transnational images and debates on society and structures.

More information and call for papers

 Imperial Sites of Memory

2-3 Sep 2011. The conference at St Andrews will examine and compare different categories of imperial commemorations that persisted in and across various metropolitan powers. It will also be mindful of their perception and construction amongst colonised societies.

A follow-up conference (to take place in Bonn in 2012) will build on the work done at St Andrews and assess the functions and importance of these Sites of Memory for the national and transnational identities and political cultures of the groups, states and societies concerned.

Interdisciplinary Workshop:  ‘Doing History through Literature – doing Literature through History:  Re-visiting disciplinary boundaries.’

May 13th, 2011, 2pm

Venue: University of St Andrews, room: Buchanan 216
School of Modern Languages, School of History /Centre for Transnational History

Led by PhD researchers from the School of Modern Languages and the School of History we aim at developing a series of interdisciplinary workshops targeted at highlighting the thematic overlaps between history and literature as well as neighbouring disciplines. This first workshop on Doing History through Literature – doing Literature through History will focus on themes broadly connected with the notion of literature as a historical source and using history as a literary device, and the means with which literature can construct and stylize an era, its social, cultural and political, economic or technological characteristics. Following panel presentations will be an open discussion on further perspectives for this interdisciplinary approach.

The Sixties in National and Transnational Perspective: Communications and Protest Movements, 1956-1973

16 September 2010, The societies of post-war Western Europe and the U.S. underwent a number of common developments which can be considered beyond the framework of the nation state.  The rise of affluent society, the post-war ‘baby boom’, the expansion of communication channels, and the almost universal fear of nuclear warfare all signify broad trends which can be considered transnational.  It was in the sixties (circa 1956-1973) that the lived experience of these common developments gained expression, usually in outbreaks of protests which have found their most enduring symbol in the year 1968. 

German Images of the West in the long nineteenth-century

2-4 July 2009, workshop in cooperation with the German Historical Institute, London
Organized by Riccardo Bavaj, Bernhard Struck, Martina Steber (GHIL)

Engineering Space in the nineteenth century. Environment, science, technology and the shaping of space

4-5 September 2009, workshop in cooperation with  the

Transnational relations of experts, elites and organizations in the nineteenth century

Series of two workshops in cooperation with the Graduate Institute, Geneva and University of Cologne
5 - 6 September 2008 Venue: University of St Andrews
31 August - 1 September 2009 Venue: Graduate Institute, Geneva
Organized by Davide Rodogno, Bernhard Struck, Jakob Vogel (University of Cologne)

Historiography & Iran in Comparative Perspective

10 - 13 September 2009
International conference in co-operation with the Institute of Iranian Studies, University of St Andrews / Iran Heritage Foundation