October 26, 2012

Sonya O. Rose
(University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Birkbeck College, University of London)

Gender and the Politics of Sacrifice:
Britain and the Colonial Empire in the Age of World War I

This lecture will explore what historical scholarship suggests about how the meanings of the key wartime concepts of service and sacrifice resonated within Britain and in the colonial empire with a primary focus on India. It will consider the political significance of service and sacrifice and the granting of universal suffrage for men and the enfranchisement of some women in the British metropole as a prelude to a discussion about ‘sacrifice’ and its political resonances in India. The talk will consider what it meant under different circumstances to ‘volunteer’ and will assess how colonial participation in the war effort was secured and with what consequences. The issues of gender, race and national consciousness will be central to the discussion.

Sonya O. Rose is Emeritus Professor of History, Sociology and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. Currently she is collaborating on an Oxford University Press handbook project, Gender, War and the Western World from 1650.

Co-convener:
the Center for European Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill
the Gender, War and Culture Series
the Institute for Arts & Humanities at UNC-Chapel Hill

Co-sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies