Defining Enemies and Allies in Civil Wars

The workshop examines the dynamics of enmity in major nineteenth- and twentieth-century civil wars, including the American, Russian, Irish, Spanish, Greek, and Chinese Civil Wars. Bringing together scholars from various academic fields, it will explore the conditions under which enmities escalated into full-fledged civil wars; how belligerent parties defined their enemies and gained supporters in conflicts that divided societies, communities, and families; and finally, how civil-war enmity was later used for political purposes or perpetuated in popular culture, literature, and media. The multiple perspectives on civil wars will include not only local and national but also transnational dimensions of the conflicts.

Registration: ambivalent-enmity(at)hcts.uni-heidelberg.de