The Violent 1950s: Towards a New History of the Global “Postwar” Decade
February 25 – 26, 2027 | German Historical Institute Washington, Washington, D.C.
Conference at GHI Washington | Conveners: Andreas Greiner (German Historical Institute Washington) and Robert Kramm (University of Tübingen); Organization: Nicola Hofstetter-Phelps
Photo Credit:
Schedule
Click on conference day to view that day’s full schedule
Thursday, February 25, 2027
10:00 a.m.
Arrival and Registration
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Welcome Remarks
Ulrike von Hirschhausen (German Historical Institute Washington) & Introduction by Andreas Greiner (German Historical Institute Washington) and Robert Kramm (University of Tübingen)
11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Panel 1: Experiences of Violence in Transatlantic Perspectives
Chair: Anna von der Goltz (Georgetown University)
Julia Schneidawind (LMU Munich): Surviving the Postwar: Violence against Marginalized Women in 1950s West Germany
Camilo Erlichman (Maastricht University): The Making of Perpetrator History: Legitimizing Violence in the Federal Republic during the 1950s
Moshe Barides (Touro University): The Kastner Affair: Political Violence, Assassination, and the Unfinished Postwar in 1950s Israel
Discussant: Isabel Heinemann (Institute for Contemporary History, IfZ / LMU Munich)
1:30 – 2:45 p.m.
Lunch Break
2:45 – 4:45 p.m.
Panel 2: Imperial Agents Coming Home and on the Move
Chair: Andreas Greiner (German Historical Institute Washington)
Linh Vu (Arizona State University): Defeated Troops, Contested Island: The Case of Exiled Chinese Nationalist Soldiers in 1950s French Cochinchina
Rebecca Orr (University of Cambridge): The Colonial Police Officer Comes Home: The End of Empire and the Expansion of the Security Industry in Britain and its Former Empire
Alonso Miguel (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia): Transnational perpetrators. The circulation of Francoist violence to Latin America during the 1950’s
Discussant: Ulrike von Hirschhausen (German Historical Institute Washington)
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Conference Reception at the GHI
Friday, February 26, 2027
9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Panel 3: Transpacific Trajectories: Gender, Guns, and Labor
Chair: Raphael Roessel (German Historical Institute Washington)
Szu-Nuo Chou (University of Ottawa): From War to Martial Law: Gendered Violence and Militarized Domesticity in Postwar Taiwan
Naoko Koda (Kindai University): The U.S. Military Occupation and the Extraction of “Native” Labor in Okinawa
Benedikt Sepp (LMU Munich): Arming the Citizen: Weapons Transfers and the Remaking of Lethal Violence in the American 1950s
Discussant: Robert Kramm (University of Tübingen)
11:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Panel 4: Colonial Legacies and Decolonial Hopes
Chair: Christiane Hoth de Olano (German Historical Institute Washington)
Fatima-Ezzahrae Touilila (New York University): On Violence, Historiographical Absence, and Memorial Void in 1950s North Africa
Norman Aselmeyer (University of Oxford): Speaking with Violence: Anti-Colonial Politics and the Mau Mau Emergency in Nairobi, Kenya
Matthew Kovac (UC Berkeley): From Bandung to Belfast: The IRA Confronts the End of Empire, 1948-1969
Discussant: Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo (University of Coimbra)
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Lunch Break
2:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Concluding Round Table Discussion & Closing Remarks
Moderator: Andreas Greiner (German Historical Institute)
Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo (University of Coimbra), Isabel Heinemann (Institute for Contemporary History, IfZ / LMU Munich), Ulrike von Hirschhausen (German Historical Institute Washington), Robert Kramm (University of Tübingen)
For any questions or inquiries, please contact Nicola Hofstetter-Phelps at hofstetter-phelps@ghi-dc.org.