The Centre for the Cultural History of Modern War (University of Manchester) and the 'European Review of History' invite proposals from panels or individuals for a multi-disciplinary conference on the history of state violence and humanitarian response. Our objective is a genuine historicisation of state violence that counters the tendency to treat twentieth-century practices as a prism through which to interpret organised violence in previous centuries. We are especially concerned with violence against civilian populations (necessarily involving reflection on the varying historical interpretations of ‘non-combatant’ status). The conference will focus on Europe and European violence and will consider the techniques and representations of state violence, ideologies of humanitarian response and the possibilities of transcendence through processes of redress and reconstruction.

Please submit proposals for panels or individual papers by email to the addresses below by the end of November 2003. Proposals should be no more than 500 words in length. Papers will be published on the Centre for the Cultural History of Modern War’s website and may be selected for a "special edition" of the 'European Review of History'.

Confirmed Speakers: Jacques Semelin, Peter Gatrell, Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Ido de Haan.

Date: 15-17 April 2004 (accommodation also available for night of Saturday 17th if required)

Location: Hulme Hall, Oxford Place, Manchester, M14 5RR

Academic Advisory Board: Peter Gatrell, Penny Summerfield, Bertrand Taithe, Jean-Marc Dreyfus & Stephen Hodkinson.