Call for Papers
Combat Stress and the Pre-modern World
Manchester Metropolitan University, Friday 7th December 2018
Since the genesis of ‘shell shock’, the pre-modern world has been used to aid our understanding of the psychological and moral injuries incurred during military service. From the turn of the millennium, there has been a surge of research that has tried to identify the symptomology of combat stress and post-traumatic stress in the source material, leading to the retrospective diagnosis of such prominent figures as: Achilles, Alexander the Great, Henry V, Samuel Pepys, to name but a few. This universalist approach has recently been challenged, giving birth to an important debate about the use of the modern PTSD model as a way to explore pre-modern combat, and post-combat, experiences. The aim of this one-day workshop is to bring together scholars from ancient, medieval, and early-modern history in order to examine the use of PTSD in the study of the pre-modern world and invigorate a cordial and lively debate within a friendly network.
We would like to invite papers of 20 minutes from postgraduates, ECRs, and established scholars working on ancient, medieval, or early-modern history, which might cover such topics as (but are not restricted to):
The presence of combat stress in the written evidence and relevant case-studies.
The experience of combat and military service.
The use of historical precedents in the study of combat stress, PTSD, ‘shell shock’ and so forth.
The dialogue between the disciplines of Psychology and History.
The ‘PTSD in history’ debate and methodological considerations.
Moral injury as an alternative historical model.
PTSD and non-combatants: women, children, the elderly, the enslaved.
A title and 250 word abstract should be sent to:
Owen Rees at o.rees@mmu.ac.uk or Dr Jason Crowley j.crowley@mmu.ac.uk
by Friday 26th October 2018. Postgraduate speakers and ECRs and warmly encouraged to submit a paper.
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