War Studies Conference - 20-21 April 2016
27 January 2016
20-21 April 2016
The Great War in the Middle East
1911-1923
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
20-21 April 2016
Conference Registration Fee: £100
* Reduced fee for postgraduate students and early career researchers of £75 *
(Book by 19 February to secure reduced fee)
Accommodation and dinners can also be booked as optional extras. If you are interested in attending please email Dr James Kitchen for a copy of the conference information pack, booking form and the security form:
Conference Programme
Wednesday 20 April 2016
09.30 – 10.30 Registration
10.30 – 10.40 Welcome and Opening Remarks
RMAS Commandant and Director of Studies
10.40 – 12.30 Panel 1: Global Strategy and the Middle East
Chair: Matthew Hughes (Brunel)
James Renton (Edge Hill) – The British Idea of the Middle East and its Consequences
Hervé François (Historial de la Grande Guerre) – France
Christopher Read (Warwick) – Great Game, Great War, Great Revolution: Continuity and Change in Russian and Soviet Policy in the Middle East 1914-22
Peter Lieb (ZMSBw, Potsdam) – German Policy towards the Middle East in 1918
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13.30 – 15.30 Panel 2: Beliefs and War
Chair: John Darwin (Oxford)
Adrian Gregory (Oxford) – Western ‘Crusading’ in the Middle East
Roberto Mazza (Limerick) – Alone, with the Enemy or With God? The Christian Churches of Palestine during the War
John Slight (Cambridge) – Jihad Beyond the Ottoman Empire
15.30 – 16.00 Break
16.00 – 18.00 Panel 3: Military Operations and Adaptation
Chair: James Kitchen (RMAS)
Kaushik Roy (Jadavpur) – Learning and Fighting: The Indian Army in Mesopotamia and Syria, 1914-1918
Aimée Fox-Godden (Birmingham) – ‘From Experience Gained in France’: Disseminating and Adapting Western Front Lessons in the Middle Eastern Theatres, 1914-1918
Metin Gurcan (Bilkent) – Gallipoli
19.00 Formal Conference Dinner
Old College Dining Room
(Optional – must be booked separately)
Thursday 21 April 2016
09.30 – 11.00 Panel 4: Imperial Home Fronts and ‘Total War’
Chair: Roberto Mazza (Limerick)
Leila Fawaz (Tufts) – Civilians and Soldiers in the Levant 1914-1918
Mario Ruiz (Hofstra) – Martial Law, Rural Labourers, and the Egyptian Home Front, 1914-1918
Oliver Bast (Manchester) – ‘The Rape of Persia’? – World War I in Neutral Iran as a Humanitarian Disaster
11.00 – 11.30 Break
11.30 – 13.00 Panel 5: Tactics and Combat in the Middle East
Chair: Robert Johnson (Oxford)
David Murphy (Maynooth) – The Arab Revolt, 1916-18: Sideshow or Major Campaign?
Nikolas Gardner (RMC Canada) – Tactics and Morale in Indian Expeditionary Force ‘D’, 1915-1916
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 15.30 Panel 6: Building and Challenging Post-War Empires
Chair: Peter Lieb (ZMSBw, Potsdam)
James Kitchen (RMAS) – Egypt 1919: The British Army and Counter-Revolutionary Operations
Robert Fletcher (Warwick) – Britain's Borderlands in the Post-Ottoman World
Michael Provence (UCSD) – Ottoman Military Culture and Anti-colonial Insurgency in Greater Syria
15.30 – 16.00 Break
16.00 – 17.30 Panel 7: Representations of the First World War in the Middle East
Chair: Adrian Gregory (Oxford)
Justin Fantauzzo (Memorial University, St John’s) – Amongst Gyppos, Jews, Arabs, and Abdul: Imperial Soldiers and the Levant in Inter-war Fiction
Nadia Atia (QMUL) – Murder in Mesopotamia: Agatha Christie’s Life and Work in the Middle East
Jenny Macleod (Hull) – Memory/Representation of Gallipoli
Gizem Tongo (Oxford) – Ottoman Art of the First World War
Alev Karaduman (Hacipteppe University) – Ottoman Literature and Modern Turkey
19.00 Buffet Dinner
Victory College Dining Room
(Optional – must be booked separately)
