Gewaltsame Begegnungen: Überlegungen zu Kriegserfahrungen und Geschlecht

Violent encounters: Reflections on war experiences and gender
Keynote lecture with George Njung
With an introduction by Qu Chang

This keynote considers war not as a history of battles and heroes, but as a dense field of human experiences characterized by imperial aggression, gender relations, constraints, and the struggle for survival. Based on his forthcoming book on the history of the First World War in the former German colony of Cameroon, George Njung looks at the history of war and violent conflict from a gendered perspective. He shows how the war restructured everyday life by changing the traditional roles, vulnerabilities and self-efficacies of men and women as well as entire communities.

The keynote places colonized soldiers at the center of a global historical narrative that ranges from the transatlantic slave trade to the world wars to the militarized labor networks of the present. In this way, Njung questions the blurred boundaries between military service, sacrifice, citizenship, belonging and exploitation. This highlights how gender reveals the hidden facets of war, such as the violence beyond the battlefield, the gendered labor that sustains empire, and the individual victims of global conflict. Understanding who fought for Europe - and at what cost - means rethinking who belongs to Europe or who can claim to belong.

Location: Safi Faye Hall

In English