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"War, Trade and the Divisive Power of Citizenship": Successful International Conference
With highly engaging discussions and the launch of a new website and database, the international conference "War, Trade and the Divisive Power of Citizenship" at the Institute for European Global Studies took place on September 22/23, 2022. The event constituted the closing conference of the Institute's SNSF-funded project "The Divisive Power of Citizenship".
A highlight of the conference was the launch of the Asia Directories Database FOCAL. The database provides digital versions of a business directory published annually between 1863 and 1941. The directories chronicle the trade and political relations between Western nations and Asia at the time. As such, they give an insight into the conditions of East-West relations, with details covering not only treaties and official diplomatic representation, but also the social practices of everyday life.
The event also featured a keynote address by Dr. Daniel Kipfer Fasciati and a rountable discussion with Prof. Dr. Michael Hildreth (University of Notre Dame), Dr. Martin Grandjean (University of Lausanne), Prof. Dr. Peter Cornwell (Institute of Modern and Contemporary Culture, University of Westminster) and Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren-Oesch (University of Basel) which was chaired by Prof. Dr. Toshiki Mogami (International Christian University, Tokyo).
The individual panels promoted exchange across disciplinary borders. "Expats, imperialists and victims: Citizenship during Transformation Periods" was in the focus of Panel I while Panel II discussed the sharing of primary sources and secure data preservation. Panel III addressed research into civilian internment camp records and introduced next-generation digital resources for historians. Lastly, Panel IV investigated legal frameworks protecting civilians, with reference to their citizenship in relation to military conflict (e.g. enemy aliens).
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