Sarah Shieff

Marking the centenary of the First World War, the New Zealand Studies Network (UK & Ireland) convened their second biennial conference on ‘New Zealand and the First World War’ at Birkbeck College, University of London (3-4 July 2014).  Co-organised by Professor Janet Wilson (The University of Northampton) and Professor Rod Edmond (The University of Kent), the conference featured an excellent range of papers on historical, literary and cultural responses to New Zealand’s involvement in the Great War. To listen back to presentations on the second day of the conference by Dr Felicity Barnes (The University of Auckland); Professor Rod Edmond (The University of Kent); Professor Alex Calder (The University of Auckland) and Professor Sarah Shieff (The University of Waikato), please read the full version of this post.

Chaired by Professor Charlotte Macdonald (Victoria University of Wellington), Dr Barnes and Professor Edmond spoke on a panel together.  Dr Barnes discussed ‘Bill Massey’s Tourists in the Big Smoke: Rethiking the Great War and National Identity’ and Professor Edmond tackled the ethical questions raised by conscientious objectors in his paper, ‘”It’s Your Submission We Want, Baxter!” Archibald Baxter’s We Will Not Cease: The Autobiography of a Conscientious Objector‘.

Listen to these papers using the player below:

Or download the MP3: Barnes & Edmond July 2014

Alex Calder

In a brilliant panel chaired by Professor Harry Ricketts (Victoria University of Wellington), Professor Calder and Professor Shieff offered differing interpretations of Alexander Aitken’s memoir, Gallipoli to the Somme. To listen back to Professor Calder’s paper, ‘A Head for Numbers: Alexander Aitken at Gallipoli and the Somme’ and Professor Shieff’s paper, ‘Time Out of Mind: Musical Patterning and Retrospective Coherence in Alexander Aitken’s Gallipoli to the Somme‘, please use the player below:

Or download the MP3: Calder & Shieff July 2014

Click here to access the complete New Zealand in the First World War Conference Programme

Felicity Barnes, Rod Edmond and Charlotte Macdonald