Habari
Before I head out to Tanzania for some education work tomorrow, I thought I’d give you an update on the GWEAA including Conference 2013, as sufficient interest was expressed for us plan one.
The conference will take place on 9 November 2013 at The National Archives, Kew, London (same place as last year). However, at the request of many, we will have a conference research day on Friday 8 November for those who wish to access archival material whilst in London (details below). On the Friday evening, there will be an opportunity for everyone to meet at The Coach & Horses between Berkeley Sq. & Bond St. so max 5 mins walk from Bond St / Oxford Circus & Green Park tube / bus stops.
In addition, given the centrality of the campaign to the Great War in Africa more generally, there will, pending interest, be a second strand of talks dealing with the Great War in other African theatres.
As there is no pre-determined theme for the day, topics relating to any aspect of the campaigns in Africa are welcomed.
If you would like to present a paper or talk on 9 November, please send a short overview to me, Anne, at thesamsonsed@gmail.com. Papers will be published following the conference event.
In order to cover the costs for 9 November, there will be a charge of £60 for participants and attendees. This includes lunch and refreshments during the day. There will be an additional small charge for the event on Friday evening 8 November for those wishing to attend. This will be advised in due course, as will details on how to book your place at the conference.
Research Day
If you would like to participate in the research day on 8 November, please let me, Anne, know which of the archives (The National Archives or Imperial War Museum) you plan to visit. This will enable me to let you have the necessary information to access the collections (the two archives have different booking and entry requirements). There will be someone from the GWEAA at each venue to welcome members and to arrange a common place for those wishing to meet over lunch that day.
More information on the Research Day and the Conference will be posted in due course, but please do get in touch in the meantime to express your interest etc.
We are hoping to be able to announce the plans for the GWEAA conferences covering the centenary years at the event in November and also to formalise the Association including a change in the name of the group to Great War in Africa Association (which has been suggested by various members given the links). There is an academic First World War in Africa Network which has been launched by colleagues in Portugal and as the two groups already have close links, the slight change in focus of the GWEAA is not expected to cause any friction etc as many members already work on other African theatres. If you do have any concerns etc about this change, please let me know. Documentation about the structure, purpose and focus of the group (Great War in Africa Association) will be circulated in due course for comment.
Other GW(E)AA news
If you haven’t yet seen Newsletter 6, please do have a read through as it contains some other news on the Association, some figures for those interested in numbers and publications.
As usual, there are questions on the forum for answering and a few tentative changes have been made to the site. Please feel free to comment constructively or otherwise on any of these.
One of the changes concerns the membership page with biographies. You can now update your own biography/profile through your GWEAA account. What you add to your profile on the system will (should) automatically update onto the membership page. If you haven’t yet provided a profile, please do as it helps link people with similar interests together.
That is all for the moment. Please feel free to pass the link and conference information onto others who may be interested.
Best wishes
Anne