Why war? And what war? How have the different forms of armed conflict evolved? To what extent are today’s wars distorted reflections of those of the past? How many forms of war are there? And in short, what is a war?
War is the largest black hole for human understanding. Despite it being imagined as clean, surgical and orderly, in reality it is dirty, chaotic and atrocious. In the conflicts that occurred throughout the 20th century and currently in the 21st century, for every eight civilian victims there has been one military victim. War is increasingly a fight against civilians, against non-combatants. It is a giant spectacle of collective violence, especially occupation and civil wars: forced displacements, population exchanges, escapes, exiles, post-war purges, systems of concentration camps and forced labour, anti-partisan wars, brutish wars, etc.
Many experts in contemporary history, some of whom have forever changed the way the history of war is written today, participate in this lecture series which aims to tackle the phenomenon of conflict from different perspectives: minorities, memory, women… and provide understanding about this very complex phenomenon.
- 9 April. Why war?, with Javier Rodrigo (UAB)
- 16 April. War today, with Miguel Alonso (UNED)
- 30 April. Civil war in capitalist modernity, with David Alegre (UAB)
- 7 May. Racialized and anti-minority war, with Carolina García Sanz (University of Seville)
- 14 May. War against women, with Laura Muñoz Encinar (UB)
- 21 May. War of memories, with Xosé Manuel Núñez Seixas (University of Santiago de Compostela)
Coordinated activity organised in collaboration with the UAB and the VOICES Network, Violence, Identity and Conflict in 20th Century Spain. It is part of the activities program of the exhibition Why war?.
