The conference seeks to stimulate intellectual discussion among specialists about what is at stake, both historiographically and politically, in working out the history of a state halfway between reconstruction and implosion. While a debate on “state building“ already exists, engendered by the creation of new states in Eastern Europe as well as in Central Asia during the 1990s, that of “history-building” is much less present in academic circles. What are the milestones that will allow for a renewed perspective on Iraqi 20th century history? Is it possible to write a history that fits into new paradigms?
The purpose is also to decompartmentalise the case of Iraq by inscribing it in a wider regional framework and in the longer-term perspective of 20th century conflicts.
The subject of comparison is not the Iraqi regime as a power structure but rather the experience of societies that have laid the foundation of new political systems and consequently new discourses about their history after the fall of a regime or the end of an armed conflict. The conference also seeks to encourage cooperation and exchanges between Iraqi and Western universities.
Organisers :
Swiss Society for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Société Suisse Moyen Orient et Civilisation Islamique, SSMOCI) and the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
Scientific committee :
Riccardo Bocco (IHEID), Hamit Bozarslan (EHESS, Paris), Anna Neubauer (SSMOCI, Bern), Peter Sluglett (University of Utah, Salt Lake City) and Jordi Tejel (SSMOCI, Bern)
For further information and registration, please contact:
Jordi Tejel, jtejel@vtxnet.ch
Site- Barton, Auditorium Jacques-Freymond