CFP: Communicating International Organizations in the 20th Century (European University Institute)

Here's an upcoming conference that should appeal to readers of the Toynbee Prize Foundation's Global History blog. From March 10-12, 2016, the European University Institute (EUI) near Florence, Italy will be hosting a conference devoted to the media history of international organizations, broadly conceived. A description of the conference (fuller version here), which is organized by EUI's Jonas Brendebach and Martin Herzer along with Heidi Tworek of the University of British Columbia, follows:

International organisations throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are unimaginable without the media. People around the globe learned about international organisations and their activities largely through the media and images created by journalists, publicists, and filmmakers in texts, sound bites, and pictures. In many cases, the very existence and success of international organisations depended on media attention, communication, and publicity.

This conference explores how international organisations were communicated to the public via the media during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The conference aims to bring together two burgeoning, yet largely unconnected strands of research: the history of international organisations and media history.

The conference takes a deliberately expansive view of both international organisations and media. International organisations involve institutionalised cooperation in both looser and regional as well as highly institutionalised and global forms. This comprises 'classic' intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations, but also the vast array of NGOs and other international fora. Media refers to newspapers, news agencies, radio, and television, but also to film, cinema, and photography.

If this sounds up your alley, then by all means, apply – but move fast, as the deadline for the conference is September 15, 2015. Researchers at all stages are invited to submit an abstract of 300 words (including name, paper title, institutional affiliation) and a CV to jonas.brendebach@eui.eu, martin.herzer@eui.eu and heidievans@gmail.com by that date. The conference organizers note that travel and accommodation expenses for the conference – highlighted by keynote addresses from Iris Schröder (Erfurt) and Glenda Sluga (Sydney) – will be covered.