The Program on Order, Conflict and Violence presents:
“Conference on Micro-Comparative Studies of 20th Century Conflicts.”
Historical cases of civil war and political violence are a major and underutilized source for the systematic study of conflict. While the fluid nature of ongoing or recent conflicts makes reliable data collection challenging, historical cases provide researchers with a unique opportunity to conduct systematic microcomparative
research, triangulating a variety of evidentiary sources. In postconflict years, previously classified archives have opened; pronounced partisanships and controversies have subsided; and a rich descriptive secondary literature has emerged. In search of better quality data, scholars of political violence are increasingly turning to the systematic study of historical cases to facilitate understanding of the dynamics driving conflict. Yet, this “historical turn” in conflict studies remains fragmented across several disciplines and subfields.
The conference on “Micro-Comparative Studies of 20th Century Conflicts” aims to highlight this emerging trend in conflict studies. In particular, the meeting seeks
to create a network of scholars who use a combination of extensive archival research with methodologies that have traditionally been used in isolation (e.g.
ethnographic research, quantitative analysis), as well as conduct disaggregated theoretical and empirical research on civil wars and other forms of political violence. Over the course of the conference, participants will present their ongoing research and investigate ways in which different approaches can be combined to advance scholarship about the complex processes driving the microdynamics of political violence.
Conference Program
Saturday, April 23, 2016
9:15 am Welcome and Introduction
9:30 am Panel I: Dynamics of Civil Conflict I
- “The Political Determinants of Resistance to Foreign Occupation, France 1940-1944”, Matthew Kocher, Yale University, Nuno P. Monteiro, Yale University
- Violence as a Generative Force: How Ethnic Categories Change During Ethnic Conflict (Bosnia and Croatia 1941), Max Bergholz, Concordia University
- Civil War Mobilization in Tribal Society: Evidence from 1941-1942 Montenegro, Vujo Ilić, OCV Fellow, Central European University
11:15 am Coffee Break
11:45 am Panel II: Dynamics of Civil Conflict II
- Fearing Betrayal, Betraying Fear? Executions of Officers in Republican Spain, 1936-1939, Theodore McLauchlin, Université de Montréal, Álvaro La Parra-Pérez, Weber State University
- The Politics of On-Side Fighting in Civil Wars: Deadly Failures of Alignment in Historical Comparative Perspective, Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl, University of Virginia and Harvard Kennedy School
- Discourse and Emotion in Sustaining Violent Social Movements During Military Occupations, Irena L. Sargsyan, Georgetown University
1:30 pm Lunch
2:30 pm Panel III: Legacies of Conflict
- The Legacy of Political Violence Across Generations Noam Lupu, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Leonid Peisakhin, New York University – Abu Dhabi
- The Legacy of Stalin’s Terror in Eastern Europe, Yuri Zhukov, University of Michigan, Sebastian Schutte, University of Konstanz
- The long-term electoral legacies of civil war in young democracies: Evidence from Italy (1946-1968), Stefano Costalli, University of Essex, Andrea Ruggeri, University of Oxford
- Civil War Displacement and Post-War Local Politics in Beirut, Amanda Rizkallah, UCLA and Harvard Kennedy School
4:30 pm Coffee Break
5:00 pm Keynote
The Pitfalls of Statistical Studies of Historical Micro-Level Violence, Jason Wittenberg, UC Berkeley