Location: Paris
This workshop seeks to explore the evocative, affective, and conflictual potential of flag displays across settings ranging from the local to the international, as expressed through colours associated with states, nationalist movements, political organizations, and related actors (Dommanget, 1967; Elsbach, 2019). It opens onto the study of how political space was appropriated in diplomatic, national, and colonial contexts (Virmani, 1999, 2008; Hernández Navarro, 2017). This means paying attention not only to the expected sites of power and diplomacy, but also to borderlands, streets, sites of celebration, mourning, or mobilization, sporting events, and other public gatherings. While national flags are central to this reflection, proposals dealing with broader dispositifs involving pennants, garlands, streamers, or other visual forms in the colours of organizations conveying a political message are equally welcome.
The organizers therefore invite proposals that examine, without geographical restriction, the political, diplomatic, social, and cultural implications of flag displays in the interwar period. Contributions may also address the specific forms this phenomenon took during these years while considering territorial disparities and the factors that shaped them. Moreover, close consideration may be given to the ways in which flag display transformed the environment, especially the urban environment, and consequently the “mental landscape” of the populations moving through these spaces.
Particular attention will be paid to papers addressing the relationship between flag displays, identity formation, and political emotions. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:
- the intended effects of flag displays and/or the ways in which they were perceived by contemporaries;
- the diplomatic uses of flags and emblems during state visits, official receptions, conferences, and within international organizations;
- flag displays as practices of marking border spaces or asserting sovereignty, especially in contested, newly integrated, or colonial territories;
- the militant and partisan uses of flags, emblems, and pennants during political gatherings, as well as the occasions, locations, and conditions of their deployment;
- the appropriation and political acceptance of emblems, as well as gestures of contestation, desecration, or removal;
- the political and legal conflicts, as well as police intervention, prompted by flag displays.
The workshop does not privilege any single methodological approach and welcomes proposals drawing on a variety of perspectives, including comparative, transnational, and microhistorical ones. Particular attention will be given to contributions based on the analysis of visual sources, as well as on testimonies that make it possible to reconstruct the perception and reception of flag displays.
Those interested are invited to complete the following form by June 7, 2026:
https://framaforms.org/pavoiser-dans-lentre-deux-guerres-1775744795
The working languages of the workshop will be French and English. In order to facilitate discussion and the publication of the workshop proceedings, participants will be asked to submit a draft paper in English three weeks before the event.
Organizers:
Alexandre Bibert (German Historical Institute Paris)
Isabelle Davion (Sorbonne Université, UMR Sirice)
François Robinet (Université Savoie Mont Blanc)
