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ACADEMIC YEAR 2008-09


6 November	Afghanistan and the Belligerents in the Second World War: opportunities and problems arising from new kinds of evidence Professor Eunan O’Halpin (TCD) Eunan O’Halpin is Professor of Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College and has published extensively in modern Irish and British history, international relations and intelligence history. His most recent book, ‘Spying on Ireland: British intelligence and Irish neutrality during the Second World War’, was published earlier this year by Oxford University Press.
20 November	Total War and Total History: Historiographical Charm of the Great War Professor Roger Chickering (Georgetown University) Roger Chickering is Professor of History at Georgetown University and a visiting scholar at the E.U.I. Florence. He has written and edited many books and articles on modern German history and on the social and cultural history of 20th century warfare. His most recent monograph,‘The Great War and Urban Life in Germany: Freiburg, 1914-1918’ has just been translated into German and a collection of essays on the inter-war years, edited with Stig Förster, The Shadows of Total War will appear next year.
21 November	Why the Germans fought until the bitter end: morale and motivations in the German Wehrmacht in 1945 Dr Nicholas Stargardt (Oxford) Dr Stargardt's interests lie in the social history of Nazi Germany including the Holocaust and the history of childhood. Among other books and articles, he has published Witnesses of War: Children's Lives under the Nazis (New York, 2005).
28 November	Stalin Goes to Spain: The Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 Dr Daniel Kowalsky (Queen’s University, Belfast) Dr Kowalsky’s research focusses on 20th century Spain, interwar diplomacy and the cinema. Alongside numerous essays and articles on these subjects, his first monograph, Stalin and the Spanish Civil War, was published in 2004 while his next book, which will be published by Manchester University Press next year, addresses the legacy of the Spanish Civil War across Europe.
4 December	Hitler’s Empire: Comparative Perspectives on the German Occupation of Europe Dr Christoph Dieckmann (Keele) Dr Dieckmann’s research revolves around the German occupation of Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Lithuania, during the Second World War. He has edited several collections of essays and published numerous articles on diverse aspects of this research.
29 January	Reinhard Heydrich and the Final Solution Dr Edouard Husson (Sorbonne) Edouard Husson is Maître de Conférences at the Sorbonne and has published widely on the history of the Holocaust. He is author of Nous Pouvons Vivre sans les Juifs (2005) and Heydrich et la Solution Finale (2008)
5 February	From ‘Total War’ to the “War on Terror” Professor Hew Strachan (Oxford) Hew Strachan is Chichele Professor of the History of War at Oxford University and one of the leading international authorities on the history of the Great War. Among his numerous publications are: The First World War, Vol. 1, To Arms and most recently, Clausewitz’s On War: A Biography (2007).
16 February	The Persistent Importance of Central Europe: Geopolitics and the Modern International System Prof. Brendan Simms (Cambridge) Brendan Simms is Professor of the History of International Relations at Cambridge University and a fellow of Peterhouse. Among his recent publications are Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714-1783 (2008) and Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia (2004).
27 February	Political Divisions and the Tactics of the Crusader Army at the Siege of Jerusalem 1099 Dr Conor Kostick (TCD) Conor Kostick is an IRCHSS Post-Doctoral Fellow at TCD and currently works on the social history of the Second Crusade, 1146-8. He is author of The Siege of Jerusalem: Conquest and Crusade in 1099 (London, 2009) and is currently editing a volume of essays on The Crusades: Conflict and Cohabitation.
9 April	Naval Warfare in Antiquity: Economic, Social and Cultural History Perspectives Dr Philip de Souza (University College Dublin) Philip de Souza is a lecturer in UCD’s School of Classics and author of Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World (1999) and The Graeco-Persian Wars 499-386 BC (2003). He has recently edited War and Peace in Ancient and Medieval History (2008) and The Ancient World at War: a Global History (2008). He has recently been awarded an IRCHSS Senior Research Fellowship for 2008-09 to complete his book on Ancient Naval Warfare.
23 April	Unlikely Heroes: The New Polish Literature and the Soviet Cultural Politics in the Early Cold War (1945-1953) Dr Patryk Babiracki (University College Dublin) Patryk Babiracki is a lecturer in Modern European History at UCD and works on the cultural history of modern Russia and Eastern Europe after the Second World War. His research concentrates on mechanisms of Soviet empire- building in Eastern Europe during the Cold War and he is working towards the publication of a book entitled Staging the Empire: Soviet-Polish Initiatives in Propaganda, Science and the Arts, 1943-1953.
30 April	Irish soldiers in Russia in the ‘long’ eighteenth century Dr Angela Byrne (NUI Maynooth) Angela Byrne recently completed her PhD on The Irish in Russia, 1690-1815, under the supervision of Dr David Lederer at NUI Maynooth. She received an NUI Travelling Studentship in 2006 and was based at Voronezh State University (Russia) for part of her postgraduate life.