29-30 May 2025, University of Warwick

Histories of violence have become a commonplace theme in the study of Global History over the past decade, perhaps especially so in relation to imperialism and colonialisms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Violence is about oppression and domination, but it often means far more than warfare, and in this conference we aim to explore the wide variety of registers through which global violence histories can be recognised and examined.

How can we research and write global histories of violence in ways that properly reflect cultural distinctions, that take account of the agency of local actors at all levels, and that embrace conceptual traditions from different parts of the world? The papers at this conference will reflect these aspirations in setting out histories from many cultures and many locations. Histories of violence have previously too often been written about in abstract ways, without description and even without explanation: in recent decades this has changed dramatically, with graphic and often disturbingly detailed histories being constructed around the violent events that shaped imperial and colonial relations in many parts of the world, or that mobilised revolts, ideologies or social movements across the globe. The narrative of these violence histories, once dominated only by the shallow stories of the victors, now more accurately reflects wider and diverse perspectives, familiarising us with victims and perpetrators alike. And everywhere, violence has its afterlife, casts its shadow, and leaves it legacies.

Our panels in this conference will take up these issues in focussing upon themes in the history of violence from around the globe – massacres, punishment, states of exception, organised crime, incarceration, sexual violence, terrorists, insurgencies and decolonization – each one illustrated by papers that will empirically explore the character and meaning of that violence in its context, while also opening up a comparative discussion about the impact and legacy of violent histories.

The conference is supported by Warwick’s The History of Violence NetworkLink opens in a new window and the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, and individual sessions have been sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Research Spotlight-funded “A Global History of Organised Crime" project and by the Imperial War MuseumLink opens in a new window.