Registration is now open for the HOTCUS Winter Symposium 2025 which will take place at the University of Gloucestershire's Francis Close Hall Campus in Cheltenham on Friday 21 February 2025.

Registration is £20 for delegates in full-time posts, and £10 for postgraduates and those in fixed-term or part-time contracts. Registration includes lunch and refreshments.

Please override the £20 ticket price and enter £10 if you are a postgraduate or have a fixed-term/part-time contract.

If you have any specific dietary requirements, special access requirements or there is anything you feel the organizers should know about - please email Christian O'Connell directly at: [email protected]

Detailed Description

The Symposium coincides with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and a number of important commemorative events in the United States and across the world. This anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the varied effects of this global conflict which triggered profound social and economic shifts in the United States, and also saw millions of American military personnel stationed abroad.

In this one-day conference, we seek to bring together historians of the twentieth-century to consider the significance of the conflict for different groups of Americans in and outside of the military during the War but also in the post-war decades, including women, African Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, and other minorities. It also invites scholars to consider the significance of the conflict in terms of American politics, economics, and foreign policy, particularly in relation to the nation’s shifting role in the world.

Given the emphasis on commemorative events and forms of remembrance in 2024 and 2025, there will also be discussions what these events – as well as representations of the war in popular culture – indicate about the lasting legacies of the conflict, possibly questioning the prominence of ideas such as those of the ‘good war’ and the ‘greatest generation.’ 

The keynote speaker for the event is Prof. Thomas Guglielmo (George Washington University) and the title of the talk is ‘Divisions & Quotients: The Aftermaths of US Military Racism during World War II and Beyond.’

Registration is £20 for delegates in full-time posts, and £10 for postgraduates and those in fixed-term or part-time contracts. Registration includes lunch and refreshments.

Further information about the event can be found here: https://hotcus.org.uk/events/winter-symposium/2025-winter-symposium/

For information on travelling to Francis Close Hall in Cheltenham, please see here: https://www.glos.ac.uk/visit-us/our-campuses/francis-close-hall-campus/

For any questions, please contact Dr Christian O'Connell [email protected]