CfP for a Seminar on 'Coping After the War'

Coping After the War. Transition to Peace and Challenges Facing Societies and Individuals in Europe after World War II
August 13 - 14, 2007, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Extract from the Call for Papers:

Coping After the War. Transition to Peace and Challenges Facing Societies and Individuals in Europe after World War II
August 13 - 14, 2007, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Extract from the Call for Papers:
After World War II, many European societies were in ruins, exhausted economically and often defeated mentally. Existing political systems fell, new ones were constructed and national borders were redrawn. Not even the 'winners' of war could expect to return to pre-war 'normality' - the war had inevitably and permanently altered societies and cultures. The transition to peace can be described as a new crisis facing society as a whole, as well as its individual members. In addition to the problems of politics, economics and reconstruction at a national level, 'the crisis of peace transition' profoundly affected the lives of individuals and different social groups. The memory of war and its reinterpretations have carried the legacy of war to the present-day: it has been claimed that the European post-war era ended only in 1990s.
The War That Follows Peace is a joint research project of the University of Jyväskylä and Åbo Akademi University, Finland, funded by the Finnish Academy. We invite researchers and postgraduate students of History, Ethnology and other subjects of the Humanities or Social Sciences to present papers at the seminar COPING AFTER WAR, Transition to Peace and Challenges Facing Societies and Individuals in Europe after World War II. Papers which address state-level post-war management or grass-root experiences are welcomed. Papers may deal with the post-war experiences of any European region, nation or ethnic group.
The workshops and seminar themes have been provisionally divided as follows:
A. Social and Economic Issues, for example:
- Re-integration of veterans and prisoners of war
- Social provision and social services for victims of war
- Social problems such as crime, alcoholism, prostitution
- Social work in post-war society
- Displacement and resettlement of refugees and ethnic minorities
B. Issues of Gender, Family and Sexuality, including:
- Post-war gender order and the gendered distribution of work
- The 'wounded masculinity' and restoration of the 'militant manliness' among former soldiers
- Role of the family in post-war society
- 'Loosened sexual morals' and reconstruction of normative sexuality
C. Issues of Myth, Memory and Trauma, for instance the following themes:
- National myths of World War II
- Private recollections and public remembrance
- 'Traumatic memory' of war and genocide
- Changing interpretations of war in 'history-writing'
D. Issues of Readjustment and Post-War Identities, for instance the following themes:
- Altered expectations and future prospects in post-war society
- New identities created by the war
- Mental problems during readjustment
- Return to normality vs. continued 'rootlessness'
Proposals for papers should be submitted by April 2,2007. Proposals should be one page and attached should be a short (maximum one page) description of the writer\'s Ph.D. or any other ongoing research project relevant to the seminar\'s themes.
Final workshop papers (maximum five pages) should be submitted by July 13, 2007. Enquiries, paper proposals and final papers should be preferably e-mailed as a Word or rtf file to: Ville Kivimäki (ville.kivimaki@abo.fi), Åbo Academy University; Kerttu Tarjamo (Tarjamo@campus.jyu.fi) University of Jyväskylä
Alternatively, proposals and papers can be sent to: Prof. Petri Karonen, Department of History and Ethnology, P. O. Box 35 (H), FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland