Call for Papers — RAF Museum Conference 2022
Published on: 23 February 2022
Meaning, Memory and the (Mis-)Remembered Past
The Royal Air Force Museum Conference 2022
5–6 September 2022. RAF Museum, London
Deadline for proposals: 11 April 2022
The Royal Air Force Museum is pleased to announce a call for papers for its conference on Meaning, Memory and the (Mis-)Remembered Past, which will be held on 5–6 September 2022. This two-day conference will explore the history we ‘remember’, the history we ‘misremember’ and the history we have ‘forgotten’.
The conference will bring together an interdisciplinary field of scholars working on topics which relate to air forces, their personnel and technology, the economies and societies they interact with, the conflicts in which they have engaged, and the global and international context with which they are connected. The conference will present research which explores the meaning of parts of the past and establish their importance to the historical whole.
The Museum is keen to encourage submissions from a wide-range of academic fields including but not limited to:
• Business and Economic History
• Gender Studies
• International Relations
• Law and Ethics
• Air Power, Aerospace and Military History
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social History
• Strategic Studies
Proposals should demonstrate how the topic of study has been ‘forgotten’, ‘remembered’ or ‘misremembered’, the relevance to contemporary historical debate, and the effect that this absence or presence has on our wider historical understanding. In considering meaning within the past, proposals should consider the influence of the topic on the present.
The organisers would particularly welcome proposals related to:
• Conflicts, and theatres on the periphery of larger conflicts, which have been neglected or misinterpreted.
• The interconnection between air forces, their personnel, procurement and strategies and societies, economies and politics
• Technological developments driven by the needs of air forces
• The organisation, personnel, management and logistics of air forces
• Air forces, other than the RAF, in British and international historiography
• Topics related to understanding the Second World, the War’s prominence in British history and the effect of this prominence on understanding the present.
If you are unsure whether your topic would fit the Conference theme, or would like further details, then you are warmly encouraged to contact the RAF Museum’s historian for an informal discussion.
The conference will be held on-site at the RAF Museum, London. The conference will have an in-person audience and will also be live-streamed. It is anticipated that the majority of speakers will present their papers in-person. If you would be unable to speak in-person then please email the RAF Museum’s historian before submitting a proposal.
Proposals for papers of 20 minutes should consist of a title, 300 word abstract, and a short biography (maximum 200 words). Proposals should be emailed to the RAF Museum’s historian Dr Harry Raffal, harry.raffal@rafmuseum.org by 11 April 2022.