In 1914 almost one quarter of the earth's surface was British. When that same empire and its allies went to war in 1914 against the Central Powers, history's first global conflict was inevitable. The statistics speak for themselves in terms of recruited soldiers and auxiliaries from the British Empire: 1,300,000 Indian, 500,000 Canadian, 300,000 Australian, 100,000 New Zealand; 80,000 South African; 15,000 West Indian and Cypriot. They came too, in smaller numbers, from places like Rhodesia, Tonga, the Falkland Islands, Ceylon and Kuwait.

It is the social and cultural reactions within these distant, often overlooked, societies now thrust into the mainstream of modern industrial conflict, which is the focus of this conference. The organisers are especially interested in papers which allow a decentralisation of socio-cultural analysis away from the more predictable metropolitan perspective (and away from the monolithic notion of empire) to focus instead on contrasts and complementarities of ideology throughout the geographical and ethnic extremes of both the 'formal' and 'informal' empire. From Singapore to Australia, Cyprus to Ireland, India to Jamaica, and around the rest of the British imperial world, further complexities and interlocking themes will be addressed, for example; how different strata and subsets of imperial society shaped and were shaped by the experience of total war; and how disparate societies and cultures – in all their manifestations and on their various 'home fronts' – shaped and were shaped by the war. As the thematic list below indicates, this conference will be of particular interest to those actively researching amongst other things: imperial and colonial history / theory, war and society, war and culture, art history, cultural studies, music history, photography, propaganda, education, pacifism, gender studies, class and race structures / relations, at the end of the pax Britannica.

The themes of the conference must relate to British colonial societies and culture of the Great War and might very well include (but not necessarily be restricted to) the following areas: Cultural reflection, formation, creation and deception Indigenous and diaspora responses Constructions of the English and / or British Empire? Nationalism versus trans-nationalism Inter-cultural and / or multi-cultural responses Cultural erasure and historiography Mimicry, mediation and masculinity Migration and transformation Religion, secularism, philanthropy and missionaries Archaeology, museums and collecting Ideological binaries from the metropole to the periphery Civil liberties in the empire Imperial pacifism and conscientious objectors Cultural / imperial rivalry between allies Colonial women and women in the empire 'High' versus 'low' cultural responses to war Propaganda and the empire Film and the empire Music and the empire Artists and the perspectives of artists Poets / authors and the written word (including children's literature) Photography and perspectives of photographers Imperial broadcasting and popular entertainment Linguistics and change Colonial political elites Imperial/colonial forces Imperial/colonial loyalties and disloyalties Race relations at the front, at the centre, and at the periphery Shaping of collective identities Educating the young: History text books throughout the empire University education, intellectual elites and the next generation

Conference Website: http://www.singaporeconference2014.com/index.asp

A 200 word abstract and a short biography of about 100 words should be sent to both organisers ( Michael Walsh, mwalsh@ntu.edu.sg / Andrekos Varnava, andrekos.varnava@flinders.edu.au ) by 12 July (extended from 14 June) 2013 using the subject line "Conference Call for Papers: The British Empire and the Great War"

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Contact:

Michael Walsh,

Associate Professor in Art History,

Nanyang Technological University,

Singapore.

mwalsh@ntu.edu.sg

or

Andrekos Varnava,

Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Military History,

Flinders University,

Australia.

andrekos.varnava@flinders.edu.au