DESCRIPTION:
On November 30th and December 1st, 2012, the Jordan Center and the Institute for French Studies will host an international symposium at NYU’s Maison Francaise. Our topic is “Cultures of War: From the French Revolution to the Russian Revolution.” This event will bring together academics and military professionals, historians and literature specialists, hailing from Russia, France, and North America. The overarching goal is to broaden our understanding of the long period in question by fostering conversation among people who do not often get a chance to hear each other’s perspectives and draw on each other’s expertise. To that end, in addition to keynote addresses by historians of France and Russia (David Bell and Peter Holquist), the symposium will include panels and roundtables on such topics as Russian vs. French mythologies of war, homefronts, and the language and literature of warfare.
SCHEDULE:
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30
10:00 am Introductions by Yanni Kotsonis (Director, Jordan Center), Anne Lounsbery (Chair, Department of Russian & dfsfsdfsfsdfsdf Slavic Studies), and Edward Berenson (Director, Institute of French Studies)
10:15 First keynote address by David Bell, followed by response from Peter Holquist
12:00 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:30 Panel: National Mythologies of War: Russia and France
Olga Maiorova, “National Mythology in the Making: Literary Representations of 1812 after War and Peace”
Jean-Marc Largeaud, “Waterloo and its Memory”
Viktor Taki, “Russians and the Ottoman Way of War: Orientalism, Nationalism and Military Theory in the Post-Napoleonic Period”
Discussant: Anne Lounsbery
3:30 Break
3:45 - 5:30 Roundtable: How do we talk about warfare?
Martin Daughtry
Valerie Deacon
Rick McPeak
Donna Orwin
Irina Sandomirskaia
Moderator: Patrick Deer
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1
10:00 - 12:00 Second keynote address by Peter Holquist, followed by response from David Bell
12:00 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:30 Panel: Homefronts
Alexander Martin, “The Crisis of the Enlightened Metropolis: War and Social Conflict in Moscow in 1812”
Joshua Sanborn, “When the Front Came Home: The Great Retreat of 1915 and the Transformation of Russian Society”
Wynne Beers, “Saigon, Algiers and Paris: Continuities and Ruptures on the French Homefront, 1945-62”
Greta Bucher, “The Embattled Family: Changing Family Values after WWII”
Discussant: Yanni Kotsonis
3:30 Break
3:45 - 5:30 Roundtable: Teaching Tradecraft at West Point
Wynne Beers
Greta Bucher
Brian DeToy
Rick McPeak
Moderator: Martin Daughtry
5:30 Closing remarks by Yanni Kotsonis
