Intellectuals & the Great War
An International Conference.
Ghent University, December 17-19, 2014
Ghent University announces a First World War conference, scheduled to take place from 17-19
December 2014. The focus of this international scholarly gathering is on the role of the
intellectual in the First World War. It aims to explore the ways in which intellectuals, working in
different fields and contexts, dealt with the strain, the shock and the aftermath of WWI. We
invite papers that look into the position of the university during the war; the ways in which
academia and the ‘monde international des esprits’ dealt with the issue of action and
commitment, and what it meant for thinkers to be confronted with the physical aspects of war.
In the vast field of WWI studies, relatively little attention has been devoted to the role of the
intellectual. When this topic has been tackled the debate rarely reached a transnational,
multidisciplinary level. In bringing together scholars from different academic and national
backgrounds, the 2014 Ghent conference seeks to do justice to the many faces of the
intellectual during WWI and wants to trace what the scholarly world now owes to them. We aim
to address the strategies and narratives of both the Entente and Central European intellectuals,
of both patriots and collaborators in occupied territories.
The Great War broke out at a time of educational reform. Due to demographic changes and
social reforms the early twentieth century speeded up the democratization of higher education,
which had slowly begun in the second half of the nineteenth century. The fact that colleges
started to open their doors to men and, in some cases women, from different social
backgrounds changed the profile of the intellectual, from armchair scholar to public figure and
intrepid adventurer. The impact of the First World War on this development cannot be
overestimated. Those not out on the battlefield had to confront the questions if and how to
contribute and react. In which ways did the events influence innovative developments, within
the fields of the sciences, philosophy, literature and the arts? In which ways was the question
how to make sense of the broken minds, the many maimed and dead bodies dealt with across
disciplines? What survives today of the insights or techniques that question yielded? How do
twenty-first-century intellectuals, engage in writing and rewriting the history of 1914-1918, look
back on the attempts of our peers to mobilize their minds and bodies? More specifically, the
conference proposes four avenues, with four intellectual disciplines, for discussion:

Science
The positioning of the academic and scientific world at large during the First World War
is this section’s focus. We also welcome papers that seek to find an answer to what it
meant to be an academic at the time, both intellectually and practically. We are
interested in the legitimization of scientific and technological progress made in service of
the war effort. Finally, we also invite papers that aim to understand the impact in terms
of continuity and discontinuity of the First World War and the Russian Revolution on the
transnational circulation of ideas and cultural goods. We encourage proposals that deal
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with the individual life-story of scientists, engineers, social and human scientists, to open
up to a larger perspective.

Literature
In this section we want to explore the impact of the Great War on early twentiethcentury as well contemporary literature. Possible topics include: WWI as a period of
literary innovation; the production and reception of patriotic and non-pacifist texts; the
image of war poets as “doomed youth”; generation gaps in the war effort; the
production of nationalist literature before, during, and after the war; the decision for
authors whether to swell the ranks or to comment from the sideline; the ideal of
heroism; the employment of women in factories and other previously male domains; the
formation of new social norms in masculinity and femininity; war poetry by female
writers and its exclusion from anthologies until after 1980; nature and the countryside as
a scene of war and peace; the representation of trauma during and after the War Effort.

Philosophy
Paper proposals that deal with any aspect of philosophy’s relationship to the First World
War and its reception among philosophers are welcome. Topics could include the role of
the war in the thought (and lives of) particular philosophers (e.g. Wittgenstein, Otto
Neurath, Carnap, Bergson, Russell, Reinach, Eucken, etc). We are especially interested in
papers that explore the role of the war in the rise (and decline) of philosophical
movements (analytic philosophy, phenomenology, Lebensphilosophie, positivism) and
their broader relationship to larger intellectual and political movements. We also
welcome contributions that deal with the philosophy and morality of mass war and that
trace the ways in which current debate in ethics relates to 1914-1918, with the use of
arms, with the philosophy of history, and with the social responsibility, if any, of
intellectuals.

Artists and architects
Paper proposals dealing with the following themes are welcomed: The Great War as
artistic motif; the war as catalyst for the development of new artistic currents as well as
for the rise of a new type of artist coping with industrial modernity; the use of visual
media in the war effort; the relation between the arts and new war-related visual
practices (such as aerial photography or camouflage techniques); industrial warfare as a
nihilist "Gesamtkunstwerk" in relation to avant-garde currents such as Futurism and
Dada; the development of new international contacts and forms of collaboration among
artists within pacifist circles in exile; architectural conferences and education of
architects abroad; exiles returning to their home country; confrontation of local and
international ideas about rebuilding the country ; et cetera.
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Proposals
for
20-minute
papers
are
due
via
email
(intellectualsandthegreatwar@gmail.com) by Feb 25, 2014, and should take the form of
a 1-page abstract accompanied by a short CV; in the case of complete panels, proposals
should consist of an abstract and short CV for every panelist together with a short CV for
the chair (if different).
The conference will be held from December 17-19, 2014 at Het Pand, Onderbergen 1,
9000 Ghent, Belgium. We welcome papers in English, French, German, and Dutch.
Keynote speakers:
1. Christophe Prochasson and Anne Rasmussen (EHESS) authors of Au nom de la patrie. Les
intellectuels et la Première Guerre mondiale (1910-1919).
2. Santanu Das, Senior Lecturer at the University of London, author of Touch and intimacy
in First World War literature and Race, Empire and First World War Writing.
3. Roy MacLeod, Professor Emeritus of (Modern) History at the University of Sydney, and
an Honorary Associate in the History and Philosophy of Science. Author of ‘The Scientists
Go to War: Revisiting Precept and Practice, 1914-1919’, Journal of War and Culture
Studies, 2 (1), (2009), 37-51, and ‘Science and Scientists,’ Jay Winter (ed.) Cambridge
History of the First World War Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), vol. 5,
434-459, 704-708.
4. Annette Becker, at l'Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense and senior member of
l'Institut universitaire de France. She is the author, with Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, of
1914-1918, Retrouver la guerre (Gallimard, 2000).
5. Sophie De Schaepdrijver, Pennsylvania State University, author of De Groote Oorlog - Het
Koninkrijk België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog (1997).
A public evening lecture by Stefan Hertmans will be organized in collaboration with Vooruit.
Local organizing committee:
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Biebuyck, UGent
Prof. Dr. Jean Bourgeois, UGent
Prof. Dr. Marysa Demoor, UGent
Prof. Dr. Bruno De Wever, UGent
Prof. Dr. Steven Jacobs, UGent
Prof. Dr. Eric Schliesser, UGent
Prof. Dr. Pierre Schoentjes, UGent
Prof. Dr. Marjan Sterckx, UGent
Prof. Dr. Yves T'Sjoen, UGent
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Prof. Dr. Pieter Uyttenhove, UGent
Prof. Dr. Hans Vandevoorde, VUB
Prof. Dr. Christophe Verbruggen, UGent
Prof. Dr. Antoon Vrints, UGent
Dr. Sarah Posman, UGent
With the support of the Research unit Social History since 1750 (Department of History), Sarton
Centre for the History of Science, the Department of Art History, Literature, Philosophy,
Archeology, Communication Sciences, Architecture and Urban Planning.
International scientific committee:
Prof. Dr. Nicolas Beaupré (Université Blaise Pascal Clermont Ferrand)
Prof. Dr. Marnix Beyen (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Prof. Dr. Benoit Majerus (Université du Luxembourg)
Prof. Dr. Hubert Roland (UCL)
Prof. Dr. Leonard V. Smith (Oberlin College)
Prof. Dr. Laurence Van Ypersele (UCL),
Dr. Stefan Goebel (Kent)
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