University of Kent, Canterbury, Grimond Lecture Theatre 2
This is the 5th lecture in a series on the military occupations of the First World War.
In this lecture, Professor De Schaepdrijver will examine how both occupied civilians and occupying forces defined themselves and their duties during the war.
Across the belligerent world, soldiers and civilians tallied their own and others’ “sacrifices.” How was “sacrifice” defined and measured in occupied lands, which were neither front nor home front?
How did occupiers and occupied measure themselves compared to those on fighting fronts – or those in unoccupied home fronts?
Did the experience of military occupation lead to a redefinition of citizenship? What role did propaganda, censorship, and underground communication play?
Sophie De Schaepdrijver (Penn State University, USA) joined the University of Kent's School of History as Leverhulme Visiting Professor for the academic year 2016-2017. During her visit she will be holding a series of lectures exploring how studying military occupation helps us understand the First World War.
Professor De Schaepdrijver is a historian of the First World War with a special interest in gender, social class, and the uses of language; she has published widely on the history of that war's military occupations. Her most recent books are Military Occupations in the First World War (edited, 2014); Bastion: Occupied Bruges in the First World War (2014); and Gabrielle Petit: The Death and Life of a Female Spy in the First World War (2015). For her work, she was awarded the title of Baroness by H.M. the King of Belgium.
