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Events

Global 1943: Political Imagination and Blueprints for the Future

Past Series, The Disciplines Series, The Disciplines Series: The Idea of Development

dateApril 11, 2014 timeFriday, 9:00am–5:00pm EDT location The Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room, Columbia University
Cosponsor
  • Blinken European Institute
B&W photo of man playing violin for large group of soldiers

1943 stands out as a year of transitions. Developments, ranging from Italy’s capitulation to the achievements of national liberation movements, illustrated the reverse of the tide and the victorious prospects of the United Nations; questions of social, economic, and political reconstruction produced novel forms of international cooperation; diverse “blueprints for tomorrow” reflected aspirations and concerns, while their implementation generated tensions that undermined the cohesion of antifascist unity. Conceptualizations of the future reflected the anticipation of a new world order that would mark a radical exodus from interwar and wartime experiences. The transforming atmosphere of 1943 signifies the emergence of dilemmas that had been, up to that point, subordinated to the priorities of the war effort and the rise of perplexities that mirrored the shifting social and political dynamics of the period.

The “Global 1943” workshop intends to explore the interplay between political imagination and the realization of the ensuing challenges regarding postwar transition. Even though the wartime apocalyptical rhetoric presented the “future” as a decisive breach from contemporary hardships, multiple developments indicated that the anticipated “future” was rooted in the social and political questions that dominated the present. Therefore the reexamination of 1943 could underline the continuities and discontinuities between interwar transformations, wartime experiences, and postwar reconfigurations.

Program

time9:30am - 9:45am EST

Introduction

time9:45am - 11:15am EST

Panel I
Chair

Marilyn Young

Professor of History

New York University

Experts, Postwar Planning and the Global 1943: Eastern Europe as a 'Laboratory' of the Non-Western World

Małgorzata Mazurek

Associate Professor of Polish Studies

Columbia University

Breaking Britain's Grip: India's Struggle for Freedom During WWII

Moss Roberts

Professor of East Asian Studies

New York University

time11:15am - 11:30am EST

Break I

time11:30am - 1:00pm EST

Panel II
Chair

Małgorzata Mazurek

Associate Professor of Polish Studies

Columbia University

Promoting “Total Democracy” for the Post-war Period: The Shadowy History of Free World Magazine and its Transnational Network

Laurent Jeanpierre

University Professor

Universite Paris 8

Legal Imagination in War: Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt on the Postwar During World War II

Dimitris Kousouris

Postdoctoral Fellow

Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz

time1:00pm - 2:00pm EST

Break II

time2:00pm - 3:30pm EST

Panel III
Chair

Dimitris Kousouris

Postdoctoral Fellow

Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz

“We are Departing from Orthodoxy”: American Communism Envisioning Soviet-American Postwar Cooperation

Kostis Karpozilos

Stavros Niarchos Postdoctoral Fellow

Columbia University

1943 as a Turning Point of Global Communism

Silvio Pons

Professor of East European History

Rome University

time3:30pm - 3:45pm EST

Break III

time3:45pm - 5:00pm EST

Roundtable Discussion

Victoria de Grazia

Moore Collegiate Professor of History

Columbia University

Mark Mazower

Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies

Department of History, Columbia University

Silvio Pons

Professor of East European History

Rome University

Participants
  • Victoria de Grazia Moore Collegiate Professor of History Columbia University
  • Laurent Jeanpierre University Professor Universite Paris 8
  • Kostis Karpozilos Stavros Niarchos Postdoctoral Fellow Columbia University
  • Dimitris Kousouris Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz
  • Małgorzata Mazurek Associate Professor of Polish Studies Columbia University
  • Mark Mazower Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies Department of History, Columbia University
  • Moss Roberts Professor of East Asian Studies New York University
  • Silvio Pons Professor of East European History Rome University
  • Marilyn Young Professor of History New York University