“Early Modern Terrorism: Atrocity and Political Violence 1500-1700″
5 November 2005, Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, UK
On the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ attempt to destroy the Houses of Parliament a conference to consider issues of politicised violence, terrorism and atrocity during the early modern period. How useful is a definition of ‘terror’ or ‘terrorism’ to our understanding of the period? How are incidents of political violence understood, interpreted or used? How does memory of violence and terror function? How do discourses of ‘terror’ intersect with the relationship between state and subject?
Papers might consider: Atrocity; torture; martyrdom; religious violence; extremism; fundamentalism; trade and colonialism; the staging of genocide and massacre; the performance of state violence; definitions of early modern terrorism; orientalism and crusading; European war and political violence; internment; conspiracy; the law; Islam, Christianity, Judaism; heresy; execution; regicide; technologies of terror; terror and the formation of the state; Hobbes, Machiavelli; Ireland; Empire; savagery; othering; ethnic cleansing; sacrifice; invasion; revenge; warfare; suppression; treason; barbarism; science and terrorism; trauma and memory; legal and illegal political acts.
Deadline for proposals: 3 June 2005
Contact: Dr. Jerome de Groot, jerome.degroot@man.ac.uk
Department of English and American Studies,
Arts Building,
University of Manchester,
Manchester M13 9PL