The Russian Revolution in Global Perspective

In January 2017, Northumbria University will host the annual conference of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution, which forms part of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES). Given the centenary of 1917, this will be a special event, evaluating the state of research on Russia's revolutionary year.

As part of the wider conference, the organisers are running a public session, entitled 'The Russian Revolution in Global Perspective'. It will take place on Friday 6 January at 5:30 pm in Newcastle's Mining Institute. Speakers will explore the global impact of, and responses to, the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as well as the role of ideas about world revolution in early Soviet politics and society.

Chair: Matthias Neumann (University of East Anglia)

Steven Marks (Clemson University) - 'The Global Impact of the Russian Revolution: Historical Comparisons

Alice Pate (Kennesaw State University) - Global Responses to the 1917 Revolutions

Gleb Albert (University of Zurich) - World Revolution and Early Soviet Society

Discussant: Chris Read (University of Warwick)

All are welcome and entrance is free. However, to guarantee a place, guests should sign up via our Eventbrite page. For further questions, feel free to contact the organiser, Charlotte Alston.

[Conference Programme] 'Revolutionary Pasts: Representing the Long Nineteenth Century's Radical Heritage'

How did activists remember, represent and reassess the revolutionary heritage of the ‘long nineteenth century’? On 4–5 November 2016, Northumbria University’s ‘Histories of Activism’research group will examine this question in association with the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH) and with the support of Durham’s Centre for Nineteenth Century Studies.

Attendance of this event is free, but all guests are asked to register via this link no later than 26 October. All registered participants will subsequently receive further information on the event. If you have any questions, you can contact the organisers (Daniel Laqua, Charlotte Alston and Laura O'Brien) via historiesofactivism@gmail.com.

PROGRAMME

Friday 4 November

14h00             Opening by the organisers

14h15             Radical histories of Ireland and Irishness

• Terence McBride (University of the West of Scotland) – The radical narrative and Irishness in post-1848 Glasgow: the role of the Glasgow Free Press
• Felix Larkin (Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland) – Riding the back of the tiger: Irish rebellions of the 19th century as portrayed in the Sunday Freeman newspaper
• Ultán Gillen (Teesside) – Rethinking Wolfe Tone, reimagining revolution in 1960s Ireland
• Chair: Peter O’Connor (Northumbria)

15h45             Coffee break

16h10             Echoes of 1848

• Abigail Green (Oxford) – Children of 1848: Jewish liberal activists and the revolutionary tradition
• Laura O’Brien (Northumbria) –  ‘These great ideas bestowed to us by the past’: education, commemoration and the 1948 centenary of the French revolution of 1848
• Daniel Laqua (Northumbria) – Nationhood between reconstruction and reunification: commemorating the 1848 revolution in 20^th-century Germany
• Chair: Timothy Baycroft (Sheffield)

17h40             Spaces and traces of radicalism

• Joseph Hardwick (Northumbria) – Mapping Tyneside radicalism
• Nigel Todd (WEA) – Newcastle’s radical past: a walking tour

20h00             Conference dinner

Saturday 5 November

10h15             Images and imaginations of revolutionary change

• Ben Partridge (Newcastle) – Imagining revolutions:  radical heritage in the photography of May ‘68
• Laura Forster (King’s College London) – The battle for the Commune: Raspouteam and the remapping of Paris, 1871–2011
• Discussant: Timothy Baycroft (Sheffield)
• Chair: James Koranyi (Durham)

11h30             Coffee break

11h50             British activism and the construction of radical legacies

• Joe Cozens (Essex) – The memory of the Peterloo Massacre in the long nineteenth century, 1819–1919
• Mark Nixon (Edinburgh) – Political heritage in the 1884 franchise demonstrations in Scotland
• Discussant: Joan Allen (Newcastle)
• Chair: John Belchem (Liverpool)

13h05             Lunch break / AGM, Society for the Study of Labour History

14h15             National and international narratives

• Tom Stammers (Durham) – Globalising the French Revolution in interwar France
• Christian Hogsbjerg (UCL) – Globalising the Haitian Revolution in interwar Paris
• Chair: Charlotte Alston (Northumbria)

15h15             Coffee break

15h30             Political movements and the uses of the past

• Máire F. Cross (Newcastle) – Peace in our time? Revolutionary aspirations of French utopian socialists narrated in a twentieth century pacifist context
• Marcella Sutcliffe (Cambridge) – Fighting for the soul of the British Left under Mazzini’s banner: co-operators versus socialists (c. 1885–1949)
• Amerigo Caruso (Saarbrücken) – Anti-revolutionary paranoia and the foundation of modern conservative political discourse in the long nineteenth century
• Chair: André Keil (Sunderland)

17h00             Closing remarks

'Women, Activism and Reform' workshop on 19 November

On Saturday 19 November, the Women's Committee of the Economic History Society will hold its 27th Annual Workshop. This time, the event will be held at the Mining Institute in Newcastle upon Tyne. Our 'Histories of Activism' group members Sarah Hellawell and Laura O'Brien will speak at the workshop, and our associate member Nicole Robertson is the co-organiser of the event.

For further information, please contact Nicole Robertson or Anne Murphy. Please register by 4 November. You can access the document containing both the programme and the booking form via this link.  

Provisional programme

10:30 am     Registration and Coffee

11:00 am – 12:30 pm     Maternity and the Family

Katrina Navickas (University of Hertfordshire): ‘The impact of imprisonment of radical reformers on their families’ economic and political strategies of survival in early nineteenth-century England’

Diana Paton (University of Edinburgh): ‘Maternity as a site of struggle in the slavery-era British-colonized Caribbean’

Sarah Hellawell (Northumbria University): ‘“What women can do for peace”: maternal rhetoric used by the Women’s International League and the Women’s Co-operative Guild during the interwar years'

12:30 pm     Lunch 

1:20 pm – 1:45 pm     Guided Tour of the Mining Institute 

1:45 pm – 3:15 pm     Activism and the Individual

Laura O’Brien (Northumbria University): ‘“A duty to publish”: Marie d’Agoult and writing the history of revolution in nineteenth-century France’ 

Clare Midgley (Sheffield Hallam University): ‘Sophia Dobson Collet and feminist activism between Britain and India in the late nineteenth century’ 

Matt Perry (Newcastle University): ‘Ellen Wilkinson and the possibility of a social movement approach to biography’

3:15 pm     Coffee/Tea Break

3:45 pm – 5:15 pm     Women’s Organisations

Cathy Hunt (Coventry University): ‘“Doing each our duty for our common womanhood”: examining the realities of union activism in the National Federation of Women Workers 1906-21’
Joanne Darnley (Manchester Metropolitan University): ‘Co-operative women, gender identity and the everyday: a visual and material approach to the co-operative movement in interwar Britain’
Pamela Schievenin (University of Glasgow): ‘Challenging traditional views on women’s work: women’s organisations and welfare reform in post-war Italy’  

5:30 pm    Closing Remarks

Call for papers: 'Revolutionary Pasts: Representing the Long Ninteenth Century's Radical Heritage'

How did activists remember, represent and reassess the revolutionary heritage of the ‘long nineteenth century’? On 4–5 November 2016, Northumbria University’s ‘Histories of Activism’research group will examine this question in association with the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH) and with the support of Durham’s Centre for Nineteenth Century Studies.

We will explore how movements, groups and organisations evoked the memory of particular events (e.g. the revolutions of 1789 and 1848, the Paris Commune, the Haymarket Affair) and how they cast or recast the legacy of particular movements (e.g. utopian socialism, Chartism, feminism). In doing so, the event explores narratives about radical and revolutionary legacies in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

We are now inviting paper proposals for this event. Please send us a brief abstract (c. 200 words) and a biographical note or CV by 12 September. You can contact the organisers (Daniel Laqua, Charlotte Alston, Laura O’Brien) via historiesofactivism@gmail.com.

Postgraduate Training Workshop 'Tracing Lives Beyond Borders', 13 May 2016

On Friday 13 May, postgraduates from the 'Histories of Activism' research group are organising ‘Tracing Lives Beyond Borders’, a half-day workshop designed to encourage discussion on the ways in which the movement of people facilitates the cross-border exchange of ideas. We will hear from postgraduate students and academics studying individuals whose lives and activism speak to this theme and there will be opportunities for participants to reflect on the methodological and epistemological aspects of their research.  Registration is open to postgraduate students as well as other researchers who may be interested in the theme. The workshop is free to all participants. Participation is free, but please register by 6 May via this link.

The event is kindly supported by the Northumbria University Graduate School and hosted in association with the Labour and Society Research Group. For further information about the event, feel free to contact the organisers via tracinglives@gmail.com. 

The workshop is taking place in Boardroom 1 of the Sutherland Building (building no. 31 on the campus map; use the entrance on Northumberland Road).

PROGRAMME

13h15 – 13h30	Registration and opening
13h30 – 14h15	Northumbria PhD students on activists who crossed borders Lara Green on Sergei Stepniak (1851–1895) Jasmine Calver on Gabrielle Duchêne (1870–1954) Sophie Roberts on Peggy Duff (1910–1981)
14h15 – 15h00	Historians in conversation: the challenges of biography Dr Charlotte Alston (Northumbria University) on her book Russia’s Greatest Enemy? Harold Williams and the Russian Revolutions (London, 2007) Dr Matt Perry (Newcastle University) on his book ‘Red Ellen’ Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movement and World (Manchester, 2013)
15h00 – 15h30	Coffee break
15h30 – 16h30	Case studies and contexts Dr Niall Whelehan (Edinburgh University): ‘Colonialism, Anarchism and the Transnational Life of an Irish Doctor’ Prof. Brian Ward (Northumbria University): ‘White Man in the Black Atlantic: The Transnational Odysseys of Frederick Delius’
16h30 – 16h40	Coffee break
16h40 – 17h15	Small group discussions and networking opportunities, facilitated by Dr André Keil (Durham University), Dr James Koranyi (Durham University) and Dr Tom Stammers (Durham University)
17h15 – 18h15	Keynote lecture Prof. Christophe Verbruggen (University of Ghent): ‘Digital Humanities and the Effort to Capture Transnational Lives, Causes and Commitments’

18h15

Concluding remarks by Dr Daniel Laqua (Northumbria University)