Aktuelle Tagungen

CONCEPTS OF FREEDOM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN GREAT BRITAIN IN HISTORICAL COMPARISON

(German Association for British Studies, Institute for Social Movements/ Ruhr-University of Bochum – Annual Conference 2026 / Haus der Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets, Clemensstr. 17-19, 44789 Bochum, Germany)

Thursday, July 16, 2026

9:00 – 9:30 Arrival and registration

9:30 – 9:45 Welcoming speeches: Stefan Berger (Bochum), Marius Guderjan (Berlin)

9:45 – 10:30: Introduction

Norbert Fabian (Bochum), The early English Revolution of 1381 and the European History of Freedom and Emancipation

Chair: Stefan Berger (Bochum)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 – 12:00 First keynote lecture: Nicholas Vincent (East Anglia), The Magna Carta of 1215 and the History of Liberty

Chair: Birgit Bublies-Godau (Bochum)

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 14:00 Second keynote lecture:

Lyndal Roper (Oxford), For liberty! The German Peasant’s War of 1525 and the Twelve Articles.

Chair: Stefan Berger (Bochum)

14:00 – 15:30 Panel 1: Conceptualising Liberty

Andrew Wells (Kiel), Freedom’s Parish: Liberty in the Urban British Atlantic, 1660-1760

Brigitta Schvéd (Budapest), Public Opinion, Political Media, and the Language of Freedom: Conceptualising Liberty and the Balance of Power in Early

Eighteenth-Century British and Habsburg Contexts

Chair: Mathis Gronau (Bochum)

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break

16:00 – 17:00 Third keynote lecture: Alan S. Kahan (Paris), ‘Freedom from Fear’. Transatlantic Concepts of Liberalism

Chair: Mathis Gronau (Bochum)

17:00 – 18:30 Panel 2: Socialism and Social Movements in Europe

Jan de Graaf (Bochum), A Model for All? European Responses to Labour’s 1945 Victory

Alberto Pantaloni (Turin), Social Movements and Struggles in Britain and Italy at the End of the ‘Golden Age’: a Comparative Study

Chair: Stefan Berger (Bochum)

19:30 Conference dinner

Friday, July 17, 2026

9:00 – 10:30 Panel 3: Political Debates on Freedom, Democracy, and Revolution in the ‘Long’ 19th century

Vicente Pons Marti (Frankfurt), Freedom, Parties, and Opposition. Political Party Debates in Britain from the French Revolution to the Reform Act of 1868

Birgit Bublies-Godau (Bochum), The European Revolution of 1848/49 and the debate on Christopher Clark,‘Revolutionary Spring. Fighting for a New World’

Chair: Norbert Fabian

10:30 – 11:00: Coffee break

11:00 – 12:30 Panel 4: Modern Conservativism and Democracy in the ‘short’ 20th century

Christina Sigrid Schlaich (Freiburg), The Politics of “Freedom” in the Making of Democratic Order: Stanley Baldwin and Transnational Public Spheres, c. 1922–1939

Edmund Neill (London), Conservatism’ Adaption to Democracy in Mid-Twentieth Century Britain

Chair: Mathis Gronau

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 15:00 Round table and open final discussion: Theories and Concepts of Freedom and Revolution, Democracy and Reform - Comparisons and Responsible Learning from History

Lyndal Roper, Norbert Fabian, Mathis Gronau, Birgit Bublies-Godau

Chair: Marius Guderjan (Berlin)

Zoom links zu der Konferenz:

Donnerstag: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/64626627478?pwd=33LuoPfjSL3PEjBqRQH4EtZ6YV9DzT.1

Freitag: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/63817565669?pwd=LOXJRZOkkQNcfSKuWy6Eu0PE959yNr.1

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