On the 1st of September, 1939, the Second World War was ignited by the Nazi invasion of Poland, and two days later Great Britain and France declared war on the Third Reich. This year, which had already seen the Spanish Civil end in a victory for fascism, would now go down a new road of violence and catastrophe, in which the dialectic between fascism and the forces opposed to it would reach their highest point of conflict.

Seventy years have now passed since 1939, and it is thus a fitting moment to take stock of what that year meant for Europe, Spain and Catalonia, and to reflect on how 1939 would shape the history of the entire world over the second half of the twentieth century.

“Europe, 1939: the year of the catastrophes” is intended to be a forum open to all researchers in the human and social sciences with an interest in reflecting upon these historical events, which have left such a profound imprint on Europe’s historical memory.

The conference will consist of five sessions:
SESSION 1: The road to war
SESSION 2: Intellectuals and politics
SESSION 3: The attitude of the Right towards the fascist regimes and democracies
SESSION 4: The attitude of the Left towards the fascist regimes and the war
SESSION 5: The European exiles

PAPERS:

Proposals for papers related to the conference topics are invited for submission. Papers which are accepted will be assigned to the appropriate session by the conference’s scientific committee. Deadlines for submission of proposals and final papers are as follows:

-Proposals: 15 July 2008. Proposals should include the following: full name of the submitter, field or profession, place of work, telephone number, email address, title of the paper and a brief summary of its contents (maximim 500 words). Notice of acceptance of proposals submitted will be communicated by 31 July 2008 at the latest.

-Papers: 15 January 2009. The text should be submitted in digital format as a Word file, and should not exceed 50,000 characters.

All submissions should be sent by email to ce.efid@uab.cat.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION PERIOD:

The registration period opens 1 September 2008 and closes 28 February 2009.

For further information, please contact the Organising Committee at ce.efid@uab.cat and consult our website at www.cefid.uab.cat

Organised by:

-The Centre for Study of the Franco and Democratic Eras (Centre d’Estudis sobre les Èpoques Franquista i Democràtica CEFID) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
-Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona CCCB)
-Carles Pi i Sunyer Foundation

With the cooperation of:

Direcció General de la Memòria Democràtica – Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia)