Call for Papers: Identity and the Transnational Reverberations of Conflict Workshop, University of Oxford

Call for Papers

Identity and the Transnational Reverberations of Conflict Workshop

5-6 May 2023

Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford

Deadline for the submission of proposals: 27 January 2023

More countries are currently experiencing violent conflict than at any point in nearly thirty years. This uptick was driven to a great extent by conflicts in the Middle East, a region that has faced political turmoil since the 2011 uprisings. At the same time, these conflicts have created the highest levels of forced displacement, globally, since WWII, and coupled with a sharp increase in terror attacks, they are having reverberations that extend far beyond the confines of the battlefield. Within the literature, the transnational dimensions of conflict have focused on conflict diffusion through factors and actors such as transnational insurgents, human rights networks, diaspora organisations or refugees. Since the master narratives of conflicts typically involve the deployment of ethnic/religious frames, identity has also been recognised as a key channel of conflict diffusion through the cross-border mobilisation of ethnic co-brethren. Here the emphasis has been on conflict-induced ethnic polarisation and cleavage formations through the terminology of boundary ‘salience’ and ‘hardening’, often driven by political entrepreneurs or states. However, there remains limited literature on how identity shifts motivated by conflict can in turn influence diffusion patterns, triggering changes in political behaviour and challenges to the nation-state that can further spur or escalate conflict.

Within this context, this workshop aims to contribute to the interdisciplinary and comparative discussion on the feedback effects of conflict that materialise in, and through, identity shifts. The focus will be on: a) empirically-based research on the causal mechanisms through which conflict catalyses identity shifts and transformations across borders, beyond the immediate theatre of the conflict itself; b) the types of identity shifts; and c) how these identity changes can, in turn, impact political behaviour and thereby conflict dynamics across the globe.

Convener and Funders:

This workshop is convened by Dr. Ceren Lord and funded through a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and a grant from the University of Oxford John Fell Fund.

Paper Submission Guidelines:

Proposals must be submitted by 27 January 2023 to ceren.lord@politics.ox.ac.uk and include:

• Paper title and a 300-word abstract.
• Short CV including a list of relevant publications.
• Please indicate whether you would like to be considered for travel/accommodation funds.

Accepted participants will be asked to send complete papers (c.2000 words).

Travel and Accommodation:

A limited amount of funding is available for accommodation and travel expenses subject to need and availability. Participating will be informed of how much we can reimburse before they make a final commitment to attend.