An Imperial World at War: The British Empire, 1939-1945

Dates: 21st-22nd September, 2013

Location: Kellogg College, Oxford

The Second World War disrupted millions of people in the form of military recruitment, civil labour conscription, food shortages, savage fighting, propaganda, and political competition. Imperial power connected remote regions to global economic, political, and military currents. The incredible diversity of the war experience of the subjects of the Empire-Commonwealth, and the great importance of the empire in defining Britain’s war, is only slowly coming to be properly understood. This Conference aims to considerably broaden our understanding of the full impact of war in the widest sense by investigating imperial interconnections and social transformations during the Second World War in many regions of the British Empire, from South and South East Asia and Africa to the Caribbean and Middle East.

The two-day Conference will bring together an international group of senior academics and early career researchers working and researching the British Empire and the Second World War. It will aim to go beyond delimiting disciplines of ‘social’ and ‘military’ history and present a more integrated and holistic account of how events on the ground intersected with wartime transformations and forms of anti-colonial resistance.

Conference Programme:

Imperial World at War (final programme)

Conference Abstracts

Location and Travel:

Click here for a map of Oxford, showing the city centre, train and bus stations, Kellogg College (blue circle number 15), St Anne’s (blue circle number 28), Continuing Education (yellow circle 11) and 5-11 Woodstock Road (by blue circle number 39), where the conference dinner will be held at Browns restaurant. Oxford map

Attendance and Registration:

The call for papers for this Conference is now closed.

If you are interested in attending (and coming to the Conference Dinner) please email warandbritishempire@gmail.com