Teaching Empire and War: Animating Marginalized Histories in the Classroom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Maguire ◽  
Diya Gupta

Abstract How can we teach ‘forgotten’ histories of war and empire in the classroom, responding to urgent needs to ‘decolonize’ the curriculum and pedagogic practice? This article reflects on an exercise in pedagogical experimentation – a ‘widening participation’ project based upon a series of workshops – to demonstrate a more global and ‘messy’ understanding of the role of empire in the First and Second World Wars and their commemoration. We discuss the role of students and teachers as co-producers of knowledge, engaging with race and colonialism in the classroom, and the intervention of such work in the project of ‘decolonizing’ curricula.

Author(s):  
David Hardiman

Much of the recent surge in writing about the practice of nonviolent forms of resistance has focused on movements that occurred after the end of the Second World War, many of which have been extremely successful. Although the fact that such a method of civil resistance was developed in its modern form by Indians is acknowledged in this writing, there has not until now been an authoritative history of the role of Indians in the evolution of the phenomenon.The book argues that while nonviolence is associated above all with the towering figure of Mahatma Gandhi, 'passive resistance' was already being practiced as a form of civil protest by nationalists in British-ruled India, though there was no principled commitment to nonviolence as such. The emphasis was on efficacy, rather than the ethics of such protest. It was Gandhi, first in South Africa and then in India, who evolved a technique that he called 'satyagraha'. He envisaged this as primarily a moral stance, though it had a highly practical impact. From 1915 onwards, he sought to root his practice in terms of the concept of ahimsa, a Sanskrit term that he translated as ‘nonviolence’. His endeavors saw 'nonviolence' forged as both a new word in the English language, and as a new political concept. This book conveys in vivid detail exactly what such nonviolence entailed, and the formidable difficulties that the pioneers of such resistance encountered in the years 1905-19.


Author(s):  
Mark Edele

This chapter turns to the present and explains the implications of the current study for the ongoing debate about the Soviet Union in the Second World War and in particular about the role of loyalty and disloyalty in the Soviet war effort. It argues that this study strengthens those who argue for a middle position: the majority of Soviet citizens were neither unquestioningly loyal to the Stalinist regime nor convinced resisters. The majority, instead, saw their interests as distinct from both the German and the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, ideology remains important if we want to understand why in the Soviet Union more resisted or collaborated than elsewhere in Europe and Asia.


Author(s):  
Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen

This book scrutinizes the relationship between the concept of international legal personality as a theoretical construct and the position of the individual as a matter of positive international law. By testing four main theoretical conceptions of international legal personality against historical and existing international legal norms that govern individuals, the book argues that the common narrative about the development of the role of the individual in international law is flawed. Contrary to conventional wisdom, international law did not apply to States alone until the Second World War, only to transform during the second half of the twentieth century to include individuals as its subjects. Rather, the answer to the question of individual rights and obligations under international law is—and always was—solely contingent upon the interpretation of international legal norms. It follows, of course, that the entities governed by a particular norm tell us nothing about the legal system to which that norm belongs. Instead, the distinction between international and national legal norms turns exclusively on the nature of their respective sources. Against the background of these insights, the book shows how present-day international lawyers continue to allow an idea, which was never more than a scholarly invention of the nineteenth century, to influence the interpretation and application of contemporary international law. This state of affairs has significant real-world ramifications as international legal rights and obligations of individuals (and other non-State entities) are frequently applied more restrictively than interpretation without presumptions regarding ‘personality’ would merit.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1065-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Dragojević

This article examines the role of the intergenerational memory of the Second World War (WWII) in identity formation and political mobilization. An existing explanation in the ethnic-conflict literature is that strategic political leaders play a crucial role in constructing and mobilizing ethnic identities. However, based on 114 open-ended interviews with individuals born in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, conducted in Serbia during 2008–2011, nearly a third of the respondents make spontaneous references to WWII in their statements, usually drawing parallels between the cycle of violence in the 1990s and that in the 1940s. The question this article asks, then, is why some respondents make references to WWII spontaneously while others do not. It is argued that intergenerational narratives of past cycles of violence also constitute a process of identity formation, in addition to, or apart from, other processes of identity formation. The respondents mention WWII violence in the context of the 1990s events because they “recognize” elements, such as symbols, discourse or patterns of violence, similar to those in the intergenerational narratives and interpret them as warning signs. Hence, individuals who had previously been exposed to intergenerational narratives may be subsequently more susceptible to political mobilization efforts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-168
Author(s):  
Cherry Canovan ◽  
Rory McDonald ◽  
Naomi Fallon

The role of peer and friendship-group conversation in educational and career choices is of great relevance to widening participation (WP) practitioners, but has been little studied in recent years. We interviewed young people and WP practitioners in Carlisle, an isolated city in the UK, to interrogate this subject. We found that young people were clearly discussing their future choices, sometimes overtly and sometimes in 'unacknowledged conversations'. However some topics and ambitions were seen as 'too private' to discuss; all of our young people had a plan for the future, but many believed that some of their friends did not, possibly because of this constraint. We also discuss the role of older students in informing choices, the phenomenon of 'clustering' that can lead to young people funnelli ng into certain options, and the role that geographical isolation might play in exacerbating some effects. Finally we give some recommendations for WP practice based on these findings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 218-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Koziura

This article is part of the special cluster titled Bukovina and Bukovinians after the Second World War: (Re)shaping and (re)thinking a region after genocide and ‘ethnic unmixing’, guest edited by Gaëlle Fisher and Maren Röger. This article explores ways in which Habsburg nostalgia has become an important factor in contemporary place-making strategies in the city of Chernivtsi, Western Ukraine. Through the analysis of diasporic homecomings, city center revitalization, and nationalist rhetoric surrounding the politics of monuments, I explore hybrid and diverse ways in which Habsburg nostalgia operates in a given setting. Rather than a static and homogenous form of place attachment, in Chernivtsi different cultural practices associated with Habsburg nostalgia coexist with each other and depending on the political context as well as the social position of the “nostalgic agents” manifest themselves differently. Drawing from my long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that in order to fully understand individuals’ attachment to space, it is necessary to grasp both the subtle emotional ways in which the city is experienced by individuals as well as problematize the role of the built environment in the visualization of collective memory and emotions of particular groups. The focus on changing manifestations of the Habsburg nostalgia can bring then a better understanding of the range and scope of the city’s symbolic resources that might be mobilized for various purposes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (S349) ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
V. Zanini ◽  
M. Gargano ◽  
A. Gasperini

AbstractEven though Italy officially joined the IAU in 1921, Italian astronomers were involved in its birth as early as 1919, when Annibale Riccò, Director of the Astrophysical Observatory of Catania, proposed to the IAU Committee to hold its first General Assembly in Rome. This contribution will analyze the role played by Italian astronomers in the development of the IAU from its foundation to the Second World War. The recent project of reordering of the astronomical historical archives in Italy permits for the first time a more in-depth study of the relations between Italian astronomers and the international scientific community.


1979 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Charles Kronk

During the Second World War psychology became recognized as having distinct services to offer. The role of male psychologists is contrasted with that of women psychologists. The initial response to the war by female psychologists is described. The specific contributions by women psychologists are examined in the following areas: research on children, child care programs, government and active duty, food problems, and the shaping of educational programs to meet the demands of the war, and work on draft boards by women psychologists.


Author(s):  
Aleksandr A. Kaвurkin

The article reflects the peculiarities of implementing the penal and labor policy by the Soviet party and state bodies, including judicial ones in the Ostyako-Vogulsky, later Khanty-Mansiysk National Okrug, their interrelation in the early 1940s. The stages of evolving and forming the administrative-territorial structure in the region are also touched upon. The relevance of the stated topic is noted. In the conditions of the Second World War and on the eve of the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, there were noticeable changes in the social policy of the state, which were conditioned by the needs of the country’s defense. It is known that in the 1930s tensions in international relations increased, there was a threat of an attack on the USSR. Due to this in 1940s the transition to an 8-hour working day and a 7-day working week was carried out in all regions of the country. In the same year, a law was adopted on the judicial responsibility up to imprisonment for unauthorized leave, absenteeism and tardiness as a result of which criminal penalties and the role of punitive, including judicial, bodies were strengthened in the country. The article notes that in the harsh northern conditions, taking into account the vast territory of the district, a significant distance separating settlements from each other, the lack of proper transport links between settlements, it was impossible to properly and promptly ensure proper consideration of criminal cases, which did not allow the territorial judicial authorities of the Ostyak-Vogul (Khanty-Mansiysk) National Okrug to make correct and balanced decisions in a timely manner. However, the judicial authorities of the district played an important role in strengthening labor discipline in the region in the early 1940s.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document