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militaryhistoryconsortium

Military History Consortium
2nd Annual Conference
Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon
4-6 June 2025

Keynote
Professor Richard Reid, University of Oxford

Call for Papers
The Military History Consortium (MHC) will be holding its second annual conference on 4-6 June 2025 at Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon in Lisbon, Portugal. The organising committee invites panel and individual paper proposals on any aspect of military history and the history of war and conflict in its broadest sense, ranging from ancient to modern times and spanning the entire globe. This includes the cross-chronological interactions between political, economic, social, and cultural history with military history. In line with the MHC’s aims, panels and papers that cover periodically and geographically under-represented areas (e.g. Antiquity and the Global South) are especially welcomed. A key aim of the MHC is also to provide a platform for and support the development of early career scholars, and therefore submissions from PhD students and postdocs are strongly encouraged.

Panel proposals should consist of:
- 3 papers and 1 chair/discussant
- 500 words rationale and presentation of the panel
- 300 words abstract for each paper
- 150 words short bio for each contributor

Individual paper proposals should consist of:

- 300 words abstract
- 150 words short bio

The submission deadline is 15 December 2024. The organising committee will inform potential participants on whether or not their paper/panel has been accepted by 17 January 2025.

Please send your submissions as pdf or word documents by email to Prof. Marco Wyss (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Prof. Evert Kleynhans (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), and Prof. Bruno Cardoso Reis (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

The MHC
The MHC connects institutions, academics, and students engaged in the study of warfare and/or military organisations in the past. Its dual aim is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas in order to strengthen international research cooperation, and a framework for joint teaching initiatives and programmes. The MHC’s membership is international, and its scope is global. While the consortium’s teaching and research agendas focus on the past, it seeks to address contemporary security challenges and inform related policy debates. It is only the study of war and the military in the past that enables us to understand and contextualise the present and thus prepare for the future.

Members
University of Amsterdam
University of Calgary
Stellenbosch University
Sciences Po Aix
Lancaster University
Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Chinese Military History Society will hold its 2025 conference in Mobile, Alabama on Thursday, March 27. This year’s conference theme will be “Roads Not Taken: Alternative Possibilities in Chinese Military History,” but proposals addressing any topic in the military history of China, broadly defined, are also welcome. Papers may deal with any historical period from antiquity to the present, and proposals on subjects related to the military history of other East Asian countries will be considered as well.

The time and place of the 2025 CMHS conference were chosen to facilitate participants’ attendance at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Military History (SMH), which will be held at the Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel and the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel from March 27 to 30 (with panels beginning on Friday, March 28). Although there is no registration fee for the CMHS meeting, attendance at the SMH conference requires separate registration and payment of applicable fees. For more information about the 2025 SMH conference, please visit <https://www.smh-hq.org/annualmeeting/index.html>.

CMHS conference attendees will be eligible for the SMH rate for hotel rooms provided they register to attend the SMH as well.

If you are interested in presenting at the CMHS conference, please send your name and contact information, a paper abstract of no more than 250 words, and a brief C.V. to David Graff by November 15, 2024.

David A. Graff
Department of History
117 Calvin Hall
802 Mid-Campus Drive South
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-1002
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: 785-532-6730

Interested non-presenters, especially scholars attending the SMH conference, are also welcome to attend the CMHS conference.

journal cover small
Issue 13.1 of the Journal of Chinese Military History was published in May 2024. It includes two book reviews and the following articles:
 
Liu Xuan, "Post-conquest Society in Shen during the Spring and Autumn Period (c. 770-453 BCE)," pp. 1-25.
 
Leijia Wu, "A Study on the Battle of Changping," pp. 26-52. 
 
Matthew Kotowski, "The Battle at Lake Changjin: TheInfluence of Korean War Memory on Contemporary Chinese War Films," pp. 53-92.

Kansas State University Department of History and the Fort Riley Museums announce a conference on War and Technology to be held October 18-19, 2024. It will take place in the beautiful Flint Hills at the Fort Riley Museum Complex and the Kansas State University campus. In addition to the usual conference agenda, there will also be recreational activities.
 
Topics include but are not limited to War and Technology and The Year of Victory. Technological innovations have greatly influenced both warfare and civilian life throughout history. From M&Ms and duct tape to helicopters and GPS, this innovation corridor has changed both worlds. The strategic environment now facing the world spurs a new round of innovation and inquiry into past adaptations. The term “Year of Victory” refers to the focus of celebration for the First Infantry Division during this calendar year. There is not a specific year denoted. Division leadership chose this theme to commemorate the accomplishments of the Big Red One during its 117 years of service to the United States. As such, proposals do not need to directly relate to the First Infantry Division or its history.
 
Papers dealing with all wars in all historical periods around the world are welcome as is subject matter on all branches of the military. A special interest, however, is placed on twentieth and twenty-first century wars.
 
Please submit abstracts or panel proposals by July 15, 2024 via email to Damon Penner at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Full paper submissions will be due by October 4, 2024. For any questions contact Damon Penner at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
 
No registration fee required. List of available lodging will be provided, along with other information, to those selected.

Member Notes

  • Harold Tanner reports publication

    Wed, 18 September 2024
    Harold Tanner reports the publication of an article:  “American Understandings of Chinese Strategy: A First-Draft Genealogy of the Search for a Chinese Way of War.” War Studies Journal Vol. 1 (2024), 63-100.

  • Shifen Fox - Hengyang Battle project

    Mon, 22 July 2024

    Shifen Fox joined the CMHS just in time to attend the April conference this year. Having obtained a PhD in comparative literature, Shifen started the Hengyang Battle project in 2005. With a research grant awarded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (USA), she embarked on a research trip the following year, which resulted in six essays in Chinese published in Taiwan and mainland China. To mark the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Hengyang Battle this year, Shifen has initiated and organized a book 《後代的承載：衡陽保衛戰八十年回首》（Weight borne by descendants: looking back the eighty years since the Battle of Hengyang), a collection of essays written by five descendants. The book is expected to be published in both Taiwan and mainland China by the end of this year.

    Shifen has taken it as her obligation to make the story known to the English-speaking world. Early this year, she completed the Wikipedia entry, with the title "Battle of Hengyang", the first comprehensive and detailed account of the battle in English. She is now preparing to produce the first English book on the Battle of Hengyang.

  • Robin Yates

    Thu, 18 July 2024

    Robin Yates reports one relevant publication:

    "Early Chinese Chariots, Carriages, and Carts in War and Peace: Evidence from New Textual and Archaeological Sources,” in Chariots in Antiquity: Essays in Honour of Joost Crouwel, edited by Peter Raulwing, Stefan Burmeister, Gail Brownrigg, and Katheryn M. Linduff, pp. 215-30. BAR Publishing, Oxford, 2023, released 2024.

    And two presentations:

    “On the Military in the Qin and Early Han: New Evidence from Excavated and Recovered Sources,” Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, April 11, 2024.

    “A Brief History of Military Medicine: From Early Times through the Ming Dynasty,” Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Seattle, March 16, 2024.

  • Linh Vu has recently published three articles

    Thu, 18 July 2024

    Linh Vu has recently published three articles about military martyrs:

    “(Un)rest in Revolution: Beijing’s Eight Treasures Mountain (Babaoshan) Revolutionary Cemetery and the Making of China’s National Memory.” Memory Studies 17, no. 1 (2024): 56–70.

    A Walk in a Park of Memories: Nature, Leisure, and Remembrance at Shanghai Longhua Martyrs’ Cemetery." Transposed Memory: Visual Sites of National Recollection in 20th and 21st Century East Asia, ed. Alison J. Miller and Eunyoung Park, 182–99. Leiden: Brill, 2024.

    "Remains of the republic: Fate, fortune and families of fallen soldiers in nationalist China." Human Remains and Violence: An Interdisciplinary Journal 9, no. 2 (2023): 18–39. (Open Access)

  • Barend Noordam

    Thu, 18 July 2024

    Barend Noordam reports a number of relevant publications and presentations in 2023 and 2024:

    “Chinese Volley Fire and Metanarratives of World History.” Journal of
    World History 34/3 (2023): 329-368.

    “Book Review: Yang Haiying 杨海英, Cong “Tang jiang shu tie” kan Ming-Qing shidai de nanbing beijiang 从《唐将书帖》看明清时代的南 兵北将 (Southern Soldiers and Northern Generals during the Transitional Period of Ming & Qing: From the Perspective of Letters from Chinese Servicemen during Campaign in Korea).” Europe Research Centre for Chinese Studies Blog (2023): https://erccs.hypotheses.org/1825.

    “Knowledge of the Enemy: Delineating the Wokou in the Late Ming,” 2024 Annual Conference of the Chinese Military History Society (CMHS), Arlington (USA), April 18, 2024.

    “Island Barbarians 島夷 or Guo 國? The Chinese Imagined Political Geography of Japan around 1600,” Workshop “Beyond all Horizons: Geography and Imagination in Historical East Asia,” University of Salzburg, April 4-5, 2024.

    “Ming-Chosǒn Naval Cooperation during the Imjin War (1592-1598),” 2024 Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Virtual Day, March 1, 2024.

    “Normalizing the Navy: Ming Naval Expansion after the Imjin War,” Conference “Mastery of Materialities: Resources and Technology in Post-Imjin War East Asia (1598-1650),” Autonomous University of Barcelona, September 4-5, 2023.

    “Ming Chinese Naval Mobilization for the Imjin War (1592-1598): Networks and Knowledge Circulation in East Asian Maritime Space,” 31st Conference of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), June 22-25, 2023.

    “War and the Non-Combatant in the Late Ming: The Case of the Imjin War (1592-1598),” 2023 Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Boston (USA), March 16-19, 2023.

  • Mark Metcalf contributed two chapters on PRC military ethics

    Thu, 18 July 2024
    Mark Metcalf contributed two chapters on PRC military ethics to Warfare Ethics in Comparative Perspective China and the West (Routledge), published in April 2024. The chapters were "A Survey of 21st Century PLA Scholarship on the Role of Military Ethics in Warfare" and "Moral Warfare: Weaponizing Ethics to Weaken, Divide, and Smash the Enemy."
     
    https://www.routledge.com/Warfare-Ethics-in-Comparative-

  • Peter Lorge publishes new article

    Thu, 18 July 2024
    Peter Lorge reports the publication of an article:
     
    "A Chinese military history: comparison, critique, and methodology." War & Society (2024), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/07292473.2024.2352282