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Abstract Accepted: Depicting Death at War

December 17, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

socrel

For: http://socrel.org.uk/call-for-papers-socrel-annual-conference-material-religion/ (accepted)

Abstract:

In the Second World War, the second ‘total war’ of the Twentieth Century, death was a daily reality for both those on the fighting fronts and those on the Home Front in Britain.  The Ministry of Information (MOI), officially formed at the outbreak of the Second World War, was the central governmental publicity machine, working with other official bodies, including the War Office. Its role was to tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’.

Posters produced by the MOI needed to deal with the ever-present reality of death:  How did governmental bodies deal with the representation of death, ensuring that the seriousness of their message was conveyed, whilst avoiding too “starkly realistic posters” for those who “already knew so much of reality”. What are the moral, religious and other discourses drawn upon and depicted within the posters? Are there clear differences between the images aimed at soldiers, industrial worker and civilians? Was humour ever seen as an appropriate tool in relation to the possibility of death? What were some of the more subtle symbols of death which recurred within wartime posters, particularly within health and “Careless Talk” campaigns?

Biographical Details:

Dr Bex Lewis is Research Fellow in Social Media and Online Learning for CODEC, University of Durham. She is both a communications historian and a digital practitioner, with a particular interest in mass-popular forms of communication. The focus of her research, which she is currently developing to book form, is upon British propaganda posters. Further information can be found on http://www.ww2poster.co.uk. Her most recent publication was an article for The Poster Journal on ‘The renaissance of Keep Calm and Carry On’. She has also featured in a range of press coverage, and published with both London Transport Museum and The National Archives.

Filed Under Conference Tagged With Conference, conference abstract, Death, war

Spotted: #TDC11

July 18, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Spotted at Thinking Digital 2011… I was wearing one of my Keep Calm t-shirts!

Filed Under contemporary relevance, keep calm and carry on Tagged With Conference, Get Excited and Make Things

The Second World War, Popular Culture and Cultural Memory (Call for Papers)

January 16, 2011 By admin 2 Comments

13 July 2011 – 15 July 2011

Few historical events have resonated as fully in modern British popular culture as the Second World War. It has left a rich legacy in a range of media that continue to attract a wide audience: film, TV and radio, photography and the visual arts, journalism & propaganda, architecture, music and literature. The war’s institutionalised commemoration and remembrance fuels a museum and heritage industry whose work often benefits from the latest internet technology for maximum dissemination to educational institutions and the general public. In fact, the popular culture of the war is a cornerstone of its afterlife. The Second World War remains an easy point of reference for exhortations about public behaviour, from terrorist attacks (‘London can take it!’) to coping with credit crunch austerity (‘Make do and mend’).

This interdisciplinary conference will examine popular culture of the Second World War on the home front and in British theatres of war abroad. Defining popular culture in its widest sense – as both a ‘way of life’ and as ‘cultural texts’ – the conference will explore both wartime popular culture and its post-war legacy. We invite established scholars, museum curators, media practitioners and postgraduate researchers from a wide range of disciplines to contribute to a lively debate about the role and meaning of popular culture both during the war and in the cultural memory of the Second World War in Britain and elsewhere.

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Jim Aulich (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK), Professor Susan R. Grayzel (University of Mississippi, USA), Professor Gill Plain (University of St Andrews, UK)

Organiser(s):Lucy Noakes (University of Brighton,UK), Juliette Pattinson, (Strathclyde University, UK), Petra Rau, (Portsmouth University, UK))
Event Location: University of Brighton Brighton BN2 9TN, United Kingdom
Call for Papers details
Call for papers deadline:

31 January 2011

We welcome proposals for individual 20 minute papers as well as submissions for panels of three speakers and a Chair. Possible topics and panels may include but are not limited to:

  • Popular culture in commemorative and museal practices
  • Popular culture in/of combatant, Prisoner of War and internee life
  • Posters, propaganda, broadcasting
  • Entertainment in WW2
  • WW2 in children’s literature and media
  • Contemporary merchandising of WW2 culture and memorabilia
  • Total war, war culture and popular culture
  • The ‘people’s war’ in lived experience and in cultural texts
  • Representations of national identity and ‘the enemy’
  • Death, grief and bereavement in wartime and post-war popular culture
  • Material culture of the war and its afterlife
  • Representations of the British popular culture of the war abroad
  • Fashion, Food and retro-merchandising
  • Neo historical novels, war films, ‘militainment’
  • Forgotten aspects of wartime popular culture

There may be bursaries for postgraduates and independent scholars.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to:  ww2conference@brighton.ac.uk

Deadline:  31 January 2011

Contact details
Lucy Noakes
01273 643311
School of Humanities University of Brighton 10-11 Pavilion Parade Brighton BN2 9TN United Kingdom
01273 681935
Juliette Pattinson
Filed Under Conference Tagged With Call for Papers, Conference, Cultural Memory, Culture, keep calm and carry on, second world war

Perception, Reception and Deception: The role of the media in society

June 9, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Trinity College Dublin, 19-21 April 2011.

The 4th biennial Media History conference, ‘Perception, Reception and Deception’, jointly organised by the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, the Centre For Media History, Aberystwyth University, and the journal Media History, will focus on the ways in which people have understood the social, cultural and political roles of the media over the past five centuries. The concept of ‘the media’ will be interpreted broadly, so as to include newspapers, magazines and one-off publications which included news and information, as well as manuscript, aural, visual, and broadcast and other electronic sources.

A great deal of work has been done by scholars on the institutional, political and cultural history of various forms of media. ‘Perception, Reception and Deception’ will build on this literature to explore the ways in which print, manuscript, visual representations and the broadcast media have been understood, conceptualised, and imaginatively represented in the societies in which they were produced. It will, in other words, focus not on media production but on the reception, depiction and perception of the media by individuals and groups of individuals in a variety of different contexts over time.

How have readers, consumers, and the industry itself framed arguments about the media as a force for good (or evil) at different points in time? Have contemporaries always seen the media as an agent of change, or is there a counter-history of the media to be written in terms of promoting conservatism, deference and order? How have people understood and represented the media in terms of concepts of personal and geographical space, time and changing belief systems?  Can we think ‘internationally’ about the similarities and differences between perceptions of the media in different states and nations over time, or is the media still best understood and examined in largely local or regional contexts?   How, in short, have men and women answered in different contexts the apparently simple questions, ‘what is the media, and what is it for?’

Abstracts, of no more than 200 words for papers of between 20 to 25 minutes duration, should be sent by close of business on 30 September 2010 to Mediahistory2011@gmail.com. We welcome proposals from a range of chronological, geographical and methodological backgrounds. Additional enquiries can be directed to one or more of the following: Dr. Jason McElligott jmcellig@tcd.ie , Dr Sian Nicholas shn@aber.ac.uk or Professor Tom O’Malley tpo@aber.ac.uk

I’m tempted to submit an abstract… with my interest here in Second World War Posters, and my current emphasis on new media!

Filed Under Conference Tagged With Conference, History, Media

Men at Work

September 11, 2009 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Abstract: The Ministry of Information (MOI), officially formed at the outbreak of the Second World War, was the central governmental publicity machine. Its role was to tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’.Considering posters produced by the MOI during the Second World War, this paper will identify masculine identities, both visible and invisible, defined as ‘normal’. These images were interpreted by artists, accepted by the government, and published in wartime posters aimed at the ‘civilian army’.

Men At Work 2

View more presentations from Bex Lewis.

Read more conference information.

Filed Under Conference Tagged With Conference, Conference Paper, Masculinities, Men at Work, poster, Presentation, Slideshare

Re-making Londoners: Models of a Healthy Society in the Nation's Capital, 1918-1939

November 14, 2002 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Centre for Metropolitan History: 13 November 2002

The creation of a healthy society was, perhaps, the dominant concern of social reformers in the first half of the twentieth century and many historians have considered the legislative processes through which such a society was produced. What have, hitherto, been little studied, are the locations in which the ideolgies of a healthy society were produced, especially in the inter-war decades. It is the aim of this workshop, using London as a case study, to investigate how social reformers developed particular models, practices and environments of reform in order to re-make London’s population into a race of healthy, active and educated citizens between the end of the Great War in 1918 and the declaration of the Second World War in September 1939.

Filed Under Conference Tagged With Centre for Metropolitan History, Conference

Launch Event: Centre for the History of Women's Education

June 8, 2002 By drbexl Leave a Comment

King Alfred’s College: 7th June 2002

“The Centre provides a forum for research into the gendered nature of educational provision, practice and thought in order to provide a sound evidence base for policy and practice in respect of education for women and girls. The Centre takes a broad cultural definition of Education: one which transcends schooling to encompass learning and teaching (formal and informal) at any phase of the life-cycle, in any setting or historical period, including the recent past.”

I presented a short paper on ‘informal education’, the representation of men/women in VD posters.

Filed Under Conference Tagged With Centre for the History of Women's Education, Conference, King Alfred's College, Paper Given, University of Winchester

War and The Media: The Changing Context of Reportage and Propaganda in The Twentieth Century

September 6, 2001 By drbexl Leave a Comment

University of Kent @ Canterbury : 30th August – 4th September 2001

“This is the first major international conference on the impact of the media on war. Enormous social and technological changes have radically changed our lives over the past 150 years. The aim of the conference is to analyse how these developments have altered the relationships between politicians, the military and the media in the shaping of policies that may lead to conflict and the manner. The complex relationship between propaganda and censorship and the effect of the media on the formation of public opinion together with journalistic ethics and motives are also probed.”

Associated Publication: Connelly, M., & Welch, D. (eds), War and the Media: Reportage and Propaganda, I.B. Tauris, 2004

Filed Under Conference, propaganda Tagged With Conference, propaganda, University of Kent at Canterbury, war

Health Promotion in Historical Context

April 29, 2001 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, UEA, 27th – 28th April 2001

Presentations Included:

  • ‘Statistical Images of Diseases in Health Exhibitions in Britain in the 1930s’
  • ‘”No One Receiving?’ The Audience for Health Education Films, 1919-48′
  • ‘Health Promotion and the Transformation of Chronic Diseases after the Second World War (1945-1955)’
  • ‘The Cycle of Conflict, the Historic Development of the Public Health and Health Promotion Movements’
Filed Under Conference Tagged With Conference, UEA, Wellcome Trust

Aspects of Gender in Contemporary Britain

July 13, 2000 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Institute of Contemporary British History, 10th-12th July, 2000

“The conference aims to bring together contemporary historians as well as researchersin related fields including cultural studies, sociology and social anthropology, to explore aspects of gender history which have been neglected in previous research.”

Filed Under Conference Tagged With Conference, Institute of Contemporary British History
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