This major one-day conference, which will take place at the University of Warwick (UK) on Friday 19 April 2013, seeks to examine and reassess fundamental questions concerning political violence.

We invite both historical and contemporary approaches to political violence, embracing all academic disciplines. We also encourage papers from non-academic backgrounds. It is hoped that the conference will bring together a broad range of perspectives to this complex and highly problematic issue.

We are living in violent times. During the past decade we have witnessed terrorist attacks, protracted international wars, an explosion of pan-Arabian revolutions, and now the socio-political fallout of an unprecedented economic crisis. The increasing inequality both within and between societies has led some observers to invoke the violence of unjust and unequal socio-economic structures. Yet political violence is, of course, far from a new phenomenon. History has repeatedly thrown up the problem of political violence, how to define, explain and understand it; how to justify, excuse and legitimise it; and how to go beyond and end it.

Papers should be 15-20 minutes in length, and abstracts, along with a CV, should be submitted to: Warwickpoliticalviolence2013@gmail.com no later than 30 November 2012. Responses will be sent by early January 2013.

Organised by:

Philippe Le Goff, Department of French Studies, Warwick

Katharina Karcher, Department of German Studies, Warwick

James Ryan, Department of History, Warwick