When wars end the communities, veterans, and governments that waged them begin the processes of peace. From the reconstruction of national identities to the resettlement of refugees, postwar periods are often as complex as the conflicts themselves.

The Dale Center for the Study of War & Society at the University of Southern Mississippi invites papers and panel proposals that explore transitions to peace and postwar experiences from the ancient world through the end of the twentieth century. The organisers are especially interested in panels that are comparative and that offer broad conclusions across time and place about the challenges of "Waging Peace."

Paper and panel topics may include but are not limited to:

-   Social, political, and cultural processes of reconstructing nations and national identities

-   The experiences of veterans and their families

-   Veteran care: private family care, professional care, pensions/the cost of care

-   The evolving image/role of the disabled veteran

-   Refugees and refugee resettlement

-   The relationship between peacekeeping forces and local communities

-   Transitions to peace on the home front

-   Violence inflicted by occupying forces

-   The image of the veteran in postwar politics and culture

-   Making sense of peace via the media and popular culture

-   Reshaping peacetime national identities for international audiences

-   Failures of waging peace

-   Memoirs as therapy, debates continued, quests for meaning

-   Postwar empowerment of previously enslaved, persecuted, or marginalized groups

-   Veterans and postwar politics

-   Veteran care and postwar economies

-   Occupying forces: repeating and changing patterns of past successes and failures

While individual paper proposals will be considered, full panel proposals are preferred.

Panel proposals should be submitted as one pdf. document and include a title and one-page abstract of the theme of the panel, one-page abstracts of each paper to be presented, and a 2-page CV of each presenter, and for the chair and commenter. These will all be submitted in one pdf. document.

Individual paper proposals will include a one-page abstract of the paper and the individual's 2-page CV.

To submit proposals, please contact Dr. Kyle Zelner or Dr. Heather Stur at wagingpeace2016@gmail.com

Conference Venue:  Sheraton New Orleans, 500 Canal St., New Orleans LA 70130, USA 

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Contact:

Dr. Heather Stur

Associate Professor of History

Dale Center for the Study of War & Society

University of Southern Mississippi

601.266.4333

stur@heatherstur.com