Counter-Hegemonic Internationalisms: Perspectives from the Past

On 20 and 21 March 2025, diverse histories of activism will feature prominently at a conference hosted at Northumbria University: "Counter-Hegemonic Internationalisms: Perspectives from the Past". The programme for the event is available via this link.

The event is run within the framework of the "Rethinking Internationalism" project, which is funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council and run by a team comprising Jessica Reinisch (Birkbeck, University of London), Ria Kapoor (Queen Mary University of London), Daniel Laqua (Northumbria University) and Margot Tudor (City-St George's, University of London).

"Histories of Activism" group member Daniel Laqua is serving as the local organiser of the "Counter-Hegemonic Internationalisms" conference. The event will also feature a walking tour on "Internationalism and Empire in Newcastle" which Laqua and fellow group member Ed Anderson developed on behalf of the "Histories of Activism" group.

[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

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.

Mapping Tyneside Radicalism

The 'Histories of Activism' group is currently putting together a website that maps moments of radical activity that have occurred on Tyneside since the seventeenth century. The project was inspired by our belief that Tyneside’s rich and diverse radical history is only fitfully commemorated in the urban fabric of Newcastle and Gateshead. Mapping Tyneside Radicalism is designed to create a space where academics, researchers and local communities can work together to build a permanent memorial to the region’s tradition of radicalism and activism. 

This interactive website has gathered an archive of historic activism, and it allows users to map this archive on to the modern Tyneside landscape. In preparing this resource, we have drawn on the diverse expertise of the staff members and PhD students who are members of our research group. Every event on the site will come with a short commentary and links to further readings. We therefore hope that this resource will be of considerable use to students, schoolchildren, researchers and many others. The website is currently being developed by the CommunityITAcademy and will go live in May 2015.

We are encouraging members of the public to engage with us in a dialogue about the different dimensions of Tyneside radicalism. If you have an event that you think should be commemorated on this website, then please get in touch with the project coordinator, Dr Joe Hardwick.