ANN: Conference “The First World War in the Middle East: Aftermath and Legacies”, In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres, 15-17 Sept. ‘22

Dear colleagues,

Below you can find the final program for The First World War in the Middle East conference, to take place in Ypres in September.

If you wish to join us, please register here: https://www.inflandersfields.be/en/kenniscentrum-e/form-inschrijving-conferentie-e

For further practical details, see:
https://www.inflandersfields.be/en/program/ww1-in-the-middle-east-e

Kind regards,

Houssine Alloul

The First World War in the Middle East

Aftermath and Legacies

International conference

In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres, Belgium | 15—17 September 2022

Keynote speakers

• Elizabeth F. Thompson (American University, Washington D.C.)
• Nazan Maksudyan (Freie Universität Berlin)

Organizing partners:

• In Flanders Fields Museum (Ypres)
• Turkey Studies Network in the Low Countries (TSN)
• Power in History: Centre for Political History (PoHis) – University of Antwerp

DAY 1 – September 15, 2022 – CC Het Perron, Maarschalk Fochlaan 1, 8900 Ieper

8:45 am - 9:15 am
Coffee and reception

9:15 am - 9:30 am
Welcome and introductory remarks
Houssine Alloul (University of Amsterdam) & Pieter Trogh (In Flanders Fields Museum)

9:30 am - 11:00 am
PANEL I – Mobilization, Collaboration, and Resistance in the Arab World
Chair: Ozan Ozavci (Utrecht University)
•    Richard S. Fogarty (University at Albany, SUNY) Between the Global and the Everyday: North African Muslim Prisoners of War and the Politics of Captivity during the Great War
•    Andrea Plebani (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan) Rediscovering Diyala’s Importance in the 1920 Iraqi Revolt
•    Kyle J. Anderson (SUNY Old Westbury, Long Island) The Egyptian Labor Corps: Conscription, Migrant Labor, and Subaltern Resistance in the Global First World War

11:00 am - 11:30 am
Coffee break

11:30 am - 1:00 pm
PANEL II –  War, Identity Politics, and Mass Violence in the Ottoman-Russian Frontier
Chair: Alp Yenen (Leiden University)
•    Armen Manuk-Khaloyan (Georgetown University) A Different Kind of War: The Armenian Volunteer Battalions and the Making of the Russo-Ottoman Bloodlands, 1914–1917
•    Cevat Dargın (Princeton University) The Kizilbash Kurds' Dangerous Mission: Smuggling Armenian Genocide Survivors to Safety During World War I
•    Alexander E. Balistreri (University of Basel) A War by Any Other Name: The Contested Contexts of Postwar Armenian-Muslim Violence in the Ottoman-Caucasian Borderland

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
PANEL III – Imperial Endurance, National Ambitions, and Diplomacy after WWI
Chair: Marnix Beyen (University of Antwerp)
•    Mustafa Aksakal (Georgetown University) & Oliver Bast (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) Constructing MENA: Alawite Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, and Qajar Iran in the First World War and After
•    Zülâl Muslu (University of Vienna) Law and Emotions: From Sèvres to Lausanne
•    Yiğit Akın (The Ohio State University) Wilsonianism from Below: Post-War Peace, Sectarian Conflict, and Popular Politics in the Ottoman Empire
•    Nada Khalifa (Columbia University) Empire by Treaty: Cecil J. B. Hurst and the Meaning of National Independence, Egypt 1919

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Coffee break

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
PANEL IV – Solidarity, Belonging, and Refuge in A Post-Ottoman World
Chair: Houssine Alloul (University of Amsterdam)
•    Odile Moreau (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3) Postwar Ottoman Legacies and Diaspora: Ottoman Legacies and Ex-Ottoman Officers in Diaspora
•    Isa Blumi (Stockholm University) Cultivating Defection: How European Imperial Agents Harvested Anti-Ottoman Allies in the Arab World, and its Postwar Consequences
•    Betül Başaran (St Mary's College of Maryland) Transnational Networks and Elite Women’s Philanthropic Work after WWI: The Turkish Princesses of Hyderabad

6:15 pm - 7:30 pm
Keynote lecture
Moderator: Roschanack Shaery-Yazdi (University of Antwerp)
Elizabeth F. Thompson (American University, Washington D.C.) The 1919 Paris Peace Conference as Counter-Revolution:  The Anti-Democratic Intention of the League of Nations Mandates

7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Reception with appetizers for all attendees.

DAY 2 – September 16, 2022 – CC Het Perron, Maarschalk Fochlaan 1, 8900 Ieper

9:30 am - 10:00 am
Coffee and reception

10:00 am - 11:15 am
Keynote lecture
Moderator: Henk de Smaele (University of Antwerp)
Nazan Maksudyan (Freie Universität Berlin) Ottoman Orphans In Germany During World War I: Family Archives, Microhistory, and Visual Sources

11:30 am - 1:00 pm
PANEL V – Lineages of Post-Ottoman Modernity
Chair: Pieter Lagrou (Université libre de Bruxelles)
•    G. Carole Woodall (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs) Transnational Istanbul: Jazz, Modernity, and World War One
•    Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular (Rutgers University Newark) Postwar Muslim Migration as Nation-Building: Yugoslavia and Turkey
•    James Ryan (New York University) One Woman in Black, Another Woman in Red: Halide Edib, Sabiha Sertel, and the Political Legacy of World War I in Turkey

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch break

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
PANEL VI – The Politics of Heritage Protection
Chair: Dominiek Dendooven (In Flanders Fields Museum/University of Antwerp)
•    Nicholas J. Saunders (Bristol University) Sand through Fingers: An Archaeology of Guerilla War – The Arab Revolt, 1916-18
•    Ceren Abi (Kadir Has University) Legacies of the Wartime Archaeology to the Post-war Cultural Heritage System
•    Selvihan Kurt (Istanbul Technical University) Cleansing the Cultural Heritage of the Non-Muslims in Izmir through the Izmir Museum after World War I
•    Sebastian Willert (TU Berlin) “The Transfer of Other Works to Istanbul Was Successful”: New Perspectives on the Role of Monument Protection in Syria during the First World War

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Coffee break

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Film screening – Antoine the Fortunate (2021, Anemon Productions, 51’)
Moderator: Elizabeth F. Thompson (American University, Washington D.C.)
Documentary on the war memoir of Antoine Köpe (b. 1897, Istanbul), followed by an interview and discussion with director Nefin Dinç (James Madison University).

DAY 3 – September 17, 2022 – In Flanders Fields Museum, Cloth Hall, Grote Markt 34, 8900 Ieper

9:30 am - 10:00 am
Coffee and reception

10:00 am - 12:30 pm
Free of charge visit to the permanent exhibition of In Flanders Fields Museum and the temporary exhibition ‘For Civilisation’: The First World War in the Middle East, 1914-1923.
Introduction: Pieter Trogh (In Flanders Fields Museum)

12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch in the Museumcafé (Cloth Hall)

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Guided bus tour in the Ypres Salient, including visits to military cemeteries and former battlefields, with special attention to traces of connections between Flanders Fields and the Middle East.
Guide: Pieter Trogh (In Flanders Fields Museum)

7:45 pm – 8:15 pm (Optional)
“Last Post” ceremony at Ypres Menin Gate Memorial.