CFP: A Period of Global Revolutions - Mid-1900s to Mid-1920s (Bochum, May 2018)

Scholars from the Ruhr University of Bochum and the University of Bielefeld in Germany are organizing a workshop for both "PhDs" and "early postdocs" centered on an interesting new periodization: an early twentieth century "age of revolutions," stretching from the middle of the first decade of the century (encompassing, presumably, events such as the 1905 Russian Revolution and 1908 Ottoman, or "Young Turk" Revolution) to the mid-1920s (including the revolutionary ferment of the immediate post-First World War era). The workshop also aims to break free from the national or even regional narratives from within which these revolutions are typically seen and embrace the transnational turn in considering how they influenced one another. Going further, it seeks to interrogate whether placing these events in dialogue changes our understanding of whether some should count as "revolutions" at all - or as other forms of social and/or political unrest.

Among the more specific questions the event hopes to address: whether its periodization makes sense as an endpoint for a realization of the hopes and dreams of the proletariat of earlier decades/centuries, or as a starting point for the struggles of the twentieth century (the workshop is subtitled "foreshadowing the 20th century or ending a long revolutionary tradition?"), to what extent revolutionary movements competed against other social and cultural movements, and how different historical methodologies (social history, cultural history, urban history, or global history) could enter into dialogue to help understand this period and its upheavals.

The workshop will be held on 24 May 2018 at the Institute for Social Movements in Bochum. Proposals of up to 1,000 words may be sent to both Prof. Dr. Stefan Berger (stefan.berger@rub.de) and Prof. Dr. Klaus Weinhauer (klaus.weinhauer@uni-bielefeld.de) by no later than 31 December 2017. Travel and accommodations funding may be available, but the organizers cannot yet confirm. Applicants will be informed of the organizers' decision by no later than the end of January.