Open Call for Papers for the 39th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association
San Diego, CA, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, 2016; Deadline: January 26, 2016
“Communicating War and Violence since 1914”
Sponsored by the GSA Interdisciplinary Network “War and Violence”

The War and Violence Network of the German Studies Association (GSA) invites paper proposals for the upcoming 2016 GSA meeting in San Diego, California, (09/29-10/02/2016). This GSA interdisciplinary network seeks to bring together scholars concerned with any aspect of the field of war and violence studies. The network focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to a range of topics under a broad methodological umbrella, including comparative history, entangled history, and cultural transfer history [Vergleichs-, Verflechtungs-, Transfergeschichte], as well as approaches from literary and cultural studies such as narrative-theoretical approaches, trauma theory, psychoanalysis, and media studies. The network will sponsor a series of panels for the 2016 GSA meeting: “Communicating War and Violence since 1914”.

Starting with World War I, the way war has been communicated has gone through various iterations. The panel invites papers that address communication about war in all its forms both during and after wartime since 1914.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the communication during wartime had changed significantly. Within the military, troops could now be steered via new communication devices such as radio transceivers and phones. Such use of modern media to communicate has dramatically increased since then. In addition, media to communicate the war developments or its assessment during wartime has become increasingly diverse. Certain ways of communication try to steer civilian involvement and attitude. Wars in the 20th and 21st century have become media spectacles which call for discussion of the status of wars’ reality. Democratic societies depend on how the war is communicated and legitimized in public discourse, but all societies manipulate war communication to different degrees. Examples include embedded journalism, choices in the production or release of filmic and photographic evidence, and political speeches. Various other forms of private or non-governmental public communication also help to connect the front and the home and to assess the course of the war, such as newspaper coverage, photography, painting, film, poetry, and letters and diaries. In the aftermath of each war, various representations, commemoration events and other forms of remembrance in factual and fictional discourse shape the image of each war – from court proceedings, museums, memorials, remembrance rituals, popular history and academic historiography to novels, TV shows, movies, social media, comic books and video games. These representations can assist in working through war experiences, as well as in their suppression. Furthermore, they strongly impact attitudes towards future wars.

We invite proposals that address any dimension of communicating war from such fields as Military History, Media Studies, Cultural History, Film Studies, Literary Studies, Visual Studies, Museum Studies, and other disciplines that focus on either case studies from 1914 to the present or on theoretical and methodological aspects in the interdisciplinary field of communication and war.

Please note two important GSA rules: 1. All panel participants including the commentator and moderator must be registered GSA members by February 10, 2016. No individual at the GSA Conference may give more than one paper/participate in a seminar or participate in more than two separate capacities.

Please send abstracts, a brief c.v., and a specific request of AV needs, if applicable, before January 25, 2016 to all three network coordinators:
- Jörg Echternkamp (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg) at joerg.echternkamp@geschichte.uni-halle.de
- Stephan Jaeger (University of Manitoba) at stephan.jaeger@umanitoba.ca
- Susanne Vees-Gulani (Case Western Reserve University) at shv2@case.edu

Successful applicants will be informed by February 5, 2016. This allows unsuccessful applicants to submit their proposals directly to the GSA by February 15, 2016.