Semantics and Practices of Violence in the Spanish Civil War

For 2026, the “Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung” / “Journal for Genocide Studies” is planning a special issue on “Semantics and Practices of Violence in the Spanish Civil War” curated by Christin Hansen (Paderborn University) and Julia Quast (Paderborn University) as guest editors.

In view of the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the issue aims to address current research and new perspectives on individual aspects of practices and semantics of violence in the years 1936-1939, as well as their after-effects. Contributions may include the following topics:

- reflections on forms and practices of violence, their structures and mechanisms;
- aspects of the semantization of violence, questions of the public execution of acts of violence, the instrumentalization and representation of violence as a means of exercising power;
- individual actors or groups of actors directly involved in the war: on the attitude, reaction and (non-)intervention of international actors;
- on gender-historical aspects of the politics of violence and the experience of violence;
- on aspects of the Spanish Civil War as a discourse event (reflections in literature, film, art, media).

Interested scientists are cordially invited to contribute to this issue with an original article in German or English. We also expressly welcome article proposals from young researchers. We will accept article proposals of up to 500 words (+ brief biographical information) in electronic form with the subject line “Special Issue: Spanish Civil War” to the journal’s editorial office (idg@rub.de) and the editors Christin Hansen (christin.hansen@upb.de) and Julia Quast (julia.quast@upb.de) until May 31, 2025. Accepted contributions will be announced by 31.08.2025. Manuscripts of contributions of up to 40,000 characters (including footnotes) should be submitted by 30.01.2026, the issue will be published in June 2026.

General information for authors can be found at the following internet address: https://www.idg.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/publikationen/zfg.html.de.

Please submit your contributions in electronic form to: idg@rub.de; christin.hansen@upb.de; julia.quast@upb.de

Kontakt:
Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung
Dr. Medardus Brehl (Editor in Charge)
Universitätsstraße 150
D-44801 Bochum
Germany
E-mail: idg@rub.de