Professor Carl Bouchard, Department of History, University of Montreal, Quebec

Irish National Institute for Historical Research, School of History, UCC

Thursday 6 February 2020, 4 PM

Venue: Seminar Room, “Tyrconnell”, School of History, UCC (“Tyrconnell” is on Perrott Avenue, the road that leads from College Road to the Hayfield Manor Hotel; up the road and take the first street on the right, first building on the left)

There are few historical moments, such as 1848 or 1989, during which contemporaries witnessed history-in-the-making. The end of the First World War, with the promise of a new world order, revolutionary appeals, and various national upheavals, constituted such a moment. The Great Conversation involved men and women without political mandate who spoke and acted in the political sphere, hence benefiting both from a new discursive space, transnational in essence, and from the political and social potentialities released by the Great war.

Carl Bouchard is Associate Professor of History at Université de Montréal. In 2019-2020, he is Visiting Professor (History) and Fellow (Humanities Institute) at UCD. His research focuses on the history of international relations, peace movements and peace ideas in the twentieth century. His latest book, Cher Monsieur le Président. Quand les Français écrivaient à Woodrow Wilson (1918-1919) [“Dear Mr President. When the French wrote to Woodrow Wilson (1918-1919)] (Champ Vallon, 2015;) examined thousands of letters sent by French citizens to US President Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of the First World War. He is currently editing, in collaboration with Norman Ingram (Concordia University), a collection of essays entitled Beyond the Great War: Making Peace in a Disordered World (U. of Toronto Press).