October 2nd and 3rd, 2014
University of Victoria
Bay Street armoury
Victoria, B.C.
Program
Department
of
Germanic
and Slavic
Studies
Department
of
History
Thursday, October 2nd
Plenary Lansdowne Address
Dr. Michael Neiberg, U.S. Army War College: “New Looks at an Old Problem: Why 1914
Matters Today”
Time and Location: 7:30 pm in the David Turpin Building, A104
Friday, October 3rd
Conference
Time and Location: Sir Arthur Currie Room, Bay Street Armoury, 8:45 – 4:30 pm
8:45 am – 9 am
Welcome and Preliminary Remarks
9:00 – 10:00 am
Panel 1: The European Cultural Context (Chair: Chandar Sundaram)
Matt Pollard (Germanic and Slavic Studies): “Reading Nietzsche’s Mind in England and
America”
Magdalena Kay (English): “When beauty turns to trauma: W.B. Yeats’ Poetry of War”.
10:00– 10:30: Coffee
10:30 – 11:30
Panel 2: Canadian Contexts (Chair: Chandar Sundaram)
Jim Kempling (History): “Victoria – A city goes to war”
Misao Dean (English): “Every woman’s battle”: Nellie McClung on War”
11:30 – 1 pm: Presenters’ Lunch in the Officers’ Mess
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Panel 3: Transnationality (Chair: Matt Pollard)
John Price (History): “Rescuing History from the Empire: Canada, World War I and Global
White Supremacy”
Olga Pressitch (Germanic and Slavic Studies): “Stepmotherland on the Steppes: The Great War
and the Internment Operation in Ukrainian-Canadian Fiction”
Chandar Sundaram (Continuing Studies): ”Fiction and the Sepoy on the Western Front: a
Comparison of Anand’s Across the Black Water and Masters’ The Ravi Lancers”
2:30 – 3 pm: Coffee
3 pm – 4:30 pm
Roundtable Discussion: The Neverending “War to End All Wars” (Moderator: David
Zimmerman (History))
Discussants:
Andrew Wender (History, Political Science, Religious Studies)
Serhy Yekelchyk (History and Germanic and Slavic Studies)
Michael Neiberg (Lansdowne visitor)
Participant Biographies
1. Misao Dean is Professor in the English Department at the University of Victoria,
specializing in early Canadian literature and English Canadian culture. Her most recent
book is Inheriting a Canoe Paddle: The Canoe in Discourses of English-Canadian
Nationalism (University of Toronto Press, 2013).
2. Magdalena Kay is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Victoria,
where she teaches courses on Irish and British poetry and literature. Her research deals
with contemporary Irish and Polish poetry and fiction in a transnational mode.
3. Jim Kempling is a retired Colonel and a current Ph.D. student in History at UVic. His
research interests include Canada in the Great War 1914-1918 and digital humanities. He
was the project manager for the City Goes to War Project that developed the web site
www.acitygoestowar.ca, as well as a centenary web site for Princess Patricia’s Canadian
Light Infantry (www.birthofaregiment.com).
4. Michael Neiberg is currently the Stimson Professor of History and Security Studies at the
United States Army War College. Among his many publications are volumes on new
directions in First World War research, fighting the First World War, the Eastern front
1914-1920, and warfare in world history. He will deliver the conference’s Lansdowne
keynote lecture.
5. Matt Pollard is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the University of Victoria’s Germanic
and Slavic Studies Department. His research and teaching focuses on Leni Riefenstahl,
the Olympic Games, the city of Berlin, and Nietzsche reception. He is the conference coorganizer.
6. Olga Pressitch is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the University of Victoria’s
Germanic and Slavic Studies Department. Her research and teaching focuses on the
Ukrainian language, East European cinema, and Ukrainian literature in Canada
7. John Price is Professor of Japanese history at the University of Victoria. His research has
focused on the history of race relations between East Asia and Canada across the Pacific,
which is the subject of his latest book.
8. Chandar Sundaram is a scholar of the military history of colonial South Asia. His new
book, on the Indianization of the colonial Indian Army’s officer corps, will be published
in 2015. He teaches in the Continuing Studies Department at the University of Victoria
and is the conference co-organizer.
9. Andrew Wender is an Assistant Teaching Professor in UVic’s Departments of Political
Science and History, and Religious Studies Program. His teaching and writing focus on
the interconnections between politics and religion, the politics and history of the Middle
East, political theory, and world politics and history.
10. Serhy Yekelchyk is Professor of Slavic Studies and History at the University of Victoria,
His books include studies of Ukrainian-Russian relations during the Soviet era, and of the
birth of the modern Ukrainian nation.
11. David Zimmerman is Professor of military history at the University of Victoria. His
publications include studies of Canadian naval policy, Radar and the defence of Britain,
and scientific missions in World War II.
Acknowledgements
Pulling off a conference requires the assistance of a lot of people and institutions, and this
conference is no exception. Lisa Surridge of the English Department was an early source of
suggestions and support; Tim Iles, Humanities Advisor on Recruitment and Outreach, took on
the task of poster design and social media publicity with a great deal of skill and patience. Drs.
Oliver Schmidtke of the Centre for Global Studies, Lynne Marks of the History Department and
Helga Thorson of the German and Slavic Studies Department contributed funds to make this
conference possible. Our Lansdowne speaker, Michael Neiberg, enthusiastically accepted our
invitation, which was made possible by Matt’s colleague Elena Pnevmonidou’s willingness to
postpone her visitor until next year. Stephen Sawyer, the Mess President of the Bay St. Armoury,
was more than helpful. Gregor Craigie, CBC Radio 1’s morning man here in Victoria, was great
about publicizing the event, as was journalist and filmmaker Darin Steinkey of Aldridge Street
Print and Media. We’d like to thank all the scholars who took time from their busy schedules to
deliver such exciting and interesting papers. Lesley Pollard and Sherrill Forsythe deserve special
gratitude for handling the catering. Finally, we’d like to thank each other, for being both
enthusiastic and diligent in making this event come together. As Bogie said to Claude Rains as
the end credits of Casablanca started rolling: This could be the beginning of a beautiful
friendship.