What Matters? The Politics of Narrating War

University of Massachusetts Lowell May 16-17, 2024

The workshop is organized into an online panel on Thursday, May 16 and four panels on Friday, May 17, each taking place at Allen House at UMass Lowell (with a hybrid option for those unable to attend in person). This will be concluded with a discussion about the overall conference content, the Media, War and Conflict special issue plans, and the return conference in 2025 at Queen’s University Belfast. Following the workshop, we will have drinks and dinner at Fuse Bistro in Lowell, MA. 
Taxis will be provided for those travelling from the Sonesta Hotel to campus on Friday and from campus to Fuse Bistro in Lowell that evening. 
For anyone with practical enquiries please contact Adam Lerner at adam_lerner@uml.edu or the UML Political Science Administrative Assistant Judith Aquino at Judith_Aquino@uml.edu  or 978-934-4139. Those in need of campus parking passes should request them in advance by emailing Judith and Adam.
Note: All times are given in Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Thursday, May 16, 2024

9-11:30 a.m.: Thursday Online Panel
Chair: Adam Lerner (UML)
Discussant: Ben O’Loughlin  (Royal Holloway)
  • Alexandra Homolar (Warwick) – “Narrating Future War: Reimagining Enmity before the Collapse of Bipolarity”
  • Georg Lofflman (QMUL) and Malte Rieman (Leiden)— “War and Temporal Security: Germany’s Zeitenwende and the Reframing of National Security between Ontological Disruption and Strategic Continuity” 
  • Jessie Barton Hronesova (UCL) - The Resonance of Victimhood as a Strategic Ontology in Serbia
  • Drew Hogan (Minnesota) – “The Power and Peril of Cycle Rhetoric in Legitimating and Prolonging Military Intervention"
6:30 p.m.: Early Arrivers Meet-and-Greet at Tree House in Tewksbury, MA 

Friday, May 17, 2024

8:30 a.m.: Arrive at Allen House, UML South Campus 2 Solomont Way, Lowell, MA 01854
8:30–9 a.m.: Coffee and breakfast provided
9–10:45 a.m.: Panel 1: Future Developments/Imaginaries of War and Conflict
Chair: Alister Miskimmon (QUB)
Discussant: Adam Lerner (UML)
  • Hannah Partis-Jennings (QUB) – “Narrating Future War”
  • Shane Brighton (QUB) and Tarak Barkawi (Johns Hopkins) – “Battle Imaginaries in World Politics”
  • Jarrod Hayes (UML) – “Narratives of the end: Identity, redemption, and desecuritizing the enemy”
10:45-11 a.m. Short Break
11 a.m.–12:45 p.m.: Panel 2: States, Citizens, and War
Chair: Ben O’Loughlin (Royal Holloway)
Discussant: Rhys Crilley (Glasgow)
  • Catherine About-Khalil (Boston University), Ardeth Thawnghmung (UML) and Jenifer Whitten-Woodring (UML) – “Can Pandora’s Box be Closed? How People in Myanmar Access and Identify Trustworthy Information After the Coup”
  • Zach Mondesire (Boston University)—“South Sudan and the Narrative of Self-Determination”
  • Dan Levine (Alabama)— “‘Can the Comprador Speak?’ Zionism and the Strategic Ontology of ‘Greater Britain’”
  • Gwen Bouvier (SISU)—“Knowing conflicts through gender politics: Tweeting to show solidarity with the women of Afghanistan”
12:45–1:30 p.m.: Lunch served at Allen House
1:30–3:15 p.m.: Panel 3: Communications in War/Conflict
(coffee available throughout Panel 3) 
Chair: Adam Lerner (UML)
Discussant: Alister Miskimmon (QUB)
  • Lauren Rogers (Edinburgh) – “Ontological (In)Security: EU Foreign Policy Narratives and the War in Ukraine”
  • Renée Marlin-Bennett (Johns Hopkins) – “Information Flows and Wars’ Ontologies”
  • Christopher McIntosh (Bard) – “Narrating Violence Without War: Exploring the Idea of War Abolition”
  • Renato Fakhoury (UML) and Gabriella Gricius (Colorado State) – “Space as Identity: Narratives of Russian Expansionist Foreign Policy”
3:30 – 5:15 p.m.: Panel 4: Technology and War
Chair: Alister Miskimmon (QUB)
Discussant: Jenifer Whitten-Woodring (UML) 
  • Sanne Verschuren (Boston University) – “The United States and the Forever Dream of Missile Defense”
  • Natasha J Williams (Penn) – “War Influencers: Agency, Digital Memory, & Emergent Narrative Authority Online”
  • Andrew Ross (Johns Hopkins) – “Pundits, Sleuthers, and Citizens: Investigating War in the Age of Epistemic Ambiguity”
  • Rhys Crilley (Glasgow) – “Strategic Ontologies of Nuclear War”
  • Jessica Auchter (Université Laval) – “Visualizing War Through Satellite Footage: Technological Capacity, Truth, and the View from Above”
5:15-6 p.m.: Concluding remarks and group discussion
6 p.m.: Taxis Arrive to Take Group to Fuse Bistro in Lowell, MA
6-7 p.m.: Happy hour and pre-dinner drinks at Fuse Bistro
7 p.m.: Joint dinner at Fuse Bistro

Conference Organizers

Adam B. Lerner
Associate Professor of Political Science, Director of the Bachelor of Liberal Arts
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
Adam_Lerner@uml.edu 
Alister Miskimmon
Professor, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University, Belfast
A.Miskimmon@qub.ac.uk
Ben O’Loughlin
Professor of Politics and International Relations, Director of the New Political Communication Unit, Royal Holloway, University of London
Ben.Oloughlin@rhul.ac.uk