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.