Best-Laid Plans: A Colloquium about Schemers and Their Schemes
08 April 2016, 12:00 am

Event Information
Open to
- All
8 April 2016, 9.30am-8.00pm
Every November 5th the United Kingdom celebrates "Guy Fawkes
Night" with bonfires and fireworks to commemorate the anniversary of the
Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate the King of England.
The annals of history are full of ambitious plans, schemes, and
propositions that never took place, and through their non-occurrence
changed the course of history.
When: Where: |
While we cannot make each one of these a public holiday, we can hold a conference to hear about the intricate plots that individuals, groups, and even governments designed to achieve some lofty purpose. We can discuss the worldview of these historical figures and the breadth of their imaginations. We might speculate on the mismatch between individual perception, experience, and agency and the ability to affect substantial social or political change. In addition to hearing compelling stories often left out of the historical narrative, our theme aims to explore the world of lost alternatives. Eschewing counterfactual history, our event will feature papers that might instead highlight the contingency of historical events.
Convened by PhD candidates from UCL SSEES and the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), this event is funded under our Junior Research Forum grant scheme. |
Programme
9.30am | Registration |
10.00am | Welcome |
10.15am |
IMPERIAL AMBITIONS |
The Scottish Darien Colony in the Perception of the Spanish Colonial Administration (1696-1701) Marie Schreier, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen | |
Maurice Benyovszky and the Emergence of Pacific Geopolitics, 1768-1776 Greg Afinogenov, Harvard University | |
Hungary's Attempt at Colonial Empire in Africa, 1867 - 1918 James Callaway, New York University | |
Discussant: Philip Murphy, Institute of Commonwealth Studies | |
11.45am |
Coffee break |
12.00pm |
OUR STATE MUST BE RESURRECTED |
The November Revolution of 1830: regional, national or European? Milosz Cybowski, University of Southampton | |
Saving a Failed State: Advising the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order in the Fifteenth Century Mark Whelan, Royal Holloway | |
Discussant: Jennifer Keating, Institute of Historical Research | |
1.15pm |
Lunch |
2.15pm |
COLD WAR CONTINGENCIES |
Failed Revolution and Intrigue: The British, the Tudeh Party of Iran and the Failed Khuzestan Strikes of 1946 Rowena Razak, University of Oxford | |
The Welles Conspiracy: Sexuality, Rivalry, and Power in the Roosevelt State Department Chris Parkes, London School of Economics and Political Science | |
Beyond the Scheme: Going "East" during the Cold War Jirina Šmejkalová, Charles University, Prague |
|
Discussant:Jessica Reinisch, Birkbeck, University of London | |
3.45pm |
Coffee break |
4.00pm | LOST AND FOUND PLOTS |
Firing the Imagination: Fire Plots and the Mental World of Disaster in Late Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Britain Louis Gerdelan, Harvard University | |
Collecting Schemes and Scheming to Collect Richard Espley and Jordan Landes, Senate House Library | |
Discussant: Judy Stephenson, London School of Economics and Political Science | |
5.30pm | KEYNOTE ADDRESS |
Wendy Bracewell, Professor of South-East European History UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies | |
Wine Reception immediately following the Keynote Address (IHR Common Room) |