British Commission for Military History New Researchers’ Conference

This conference will showcase current research being undertaken by postgraduate and early career historians in the field of military history.

Postponed in 2020 due to Covid-19, the 11th British Commission for Military History New Researchers' Conference has been organised in association with the National Army Museum.

The keynote will be given by Professor Alaric Searle of the University of Salford.

Programme

9.30am - 10.00am

Delegate Registration and Reception

10.00am - 10.30am

Welcome Address by the British Commission for Military History and National Army Museum

10.30am - 11.30am

Panel 1: Warfare in the Early Modern Period

• Santiago José Del Castillo Toquero (University of Valladolid, Spain):
  'Infantry Tercio’s Command Structure: The Backbone of the Spanish Ground Army During the 16th and 17th Centuries'
• Dr Tristan Griffin (University of Cambridge):
  'Royalism, Diehardism, and the Cult of Sacrifice in the British Civil Wars'

10.30am - 11.30am

Panel 2: Home Fronts

• Cecilia Varuzza (University of Essex):
  'The Impact of War and Exile on Women and Children in Valle di Ledro, 1915-18'
• Nathan Hazlehurst (University of Salford):
  'From Gas to Rockets: How the Civil Defence Casualty Services Adapted to Changing Threats in Britain 1939-45'

11.30am - 12.00pm

Break (Tea, Coffee and Light Refreshments)

12.00pm - 1.30pm

Panel 3: Professional Military Education and Learning in the British and Commonwealth Armies, 1919-39

• Chair - Dr Christopher Phillips (Aberystwyth University)
• Guy Edwards (University of Hull):
  'Drivers for Change: What Factors Influence Military Organisations To Change?'
• James Halstead (Brunel University):
  'The British Army and the Three Third Battles of Gaza'
• Dr Iain Farquharson (Brunel University):
  'An Imperial Army? Dominion Army Institutional Cultures and Officer Education in the Interwar Period'

12.00pm - 1.30pm

Panel 4: Intelligence, Strategy and Diplomacy

• Yusuf Ali Ozkan (King’s College London):
  'Intelligence and Crisis: The Use of Intelligence in the Taba Affair in 1906'
• Konstantinos Xypolytos (Koç University, Istanbul):
  'From Ithaca to the Prussian Staff College: Clausewitzian Thought in Ioannis Metaxas'
• Dr Louise Clare (University of Manchester):
  '"War Does Not Begin with Its Outbreak. It Begins with the Use of Words": Media and Cultural Influences in the Prelude to the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War'

1.30pm - 2.30pm

Lunch

2.30pm - 4.00pm

Panel 5: Gender and Masculinity

• Laura Grace Waters (Temple University, USA):
  'Making a Man out of Wounds: How Great War Combat Experience Shaped Artistic Portrayals of Wounds and Conceptions of Masculinity'
• James Bartle (University of Plymouth):
  '"Unflagging Zeal": Women and Plymouth Naval Command'
• Hannah Grange-Sales (Manchester Central Library Archives):
  'Writing Women into Warfare: A Case Study of Paramilitarism'

2.30pm - 4.00pm

Panel 6: Second World War

• Dr Daniel Lear (independent):
  'The Non-sailing of RMS Awatea in July 1940 and the New Zealand War Histories. A Disremembered Event?'
• Dermot Rooney (King’s College London):
  'Goch 1945: Relearning the Lesson of Urban Combat'

4.00pm - 5.00pm

Keynote Address

• Professor Alaric Searle (University of Salford):
  '"Soldiers with Stiff Bodies": Rumours, Stereotypes and the Chinese Image of the British Army During the First Opium War (1839-42)'

5.00pm - 5.15pm

Closing Address by the British Commission for Military History and National Army Museum

5.15pm - 7.00pm

Reception (drinks and refreshments)