A conference analyses the personal journeys of International Brigade members in the Spanish Civil War
PRESS RELEASE
A conference at the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Barcelona on 30 and 31 October will bring together the latest research on the International Brigades, military units formed by volunteers from all over the world who came to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Among other approaches to this subject, research on the personal trajectories of the brigade members will be presented. For instance, Professor Grazyna Zajdow, from Deakin University (Australia), will talk about her father, the Polish brigade member Szymon Zajdow.
A conference at the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Barcelona on 30 and 31 October will bring together the latest research on the International Brigades, military units formed by volunteers from all over the world who came to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Among other approaches to this subject, research on the personal trajectories of the brigade members will be presented. For instance, Professor Grazyna Zajdow, from Deakin University (Australia), will talk about her father, the Polish brigade member Szymon Zajdow.
Another brigade member who will be discussed is Ukrainian Mihail Oleksiuk, whose story will be presented by his granddaughter Inga Oleksiuk, a professor at the University of Warsaw who is currently searching for her grandfather’s remains. The conference will also highlight women who fought in the Spanish Civil War, such as British nurse Lillian Urmston.
Over 50 presentations will analyse topics such as ideology in the International Brigades, the relationship with the indigenous peoples, the image of the brigade members in press and cinema, the role of women in these units and the historical memory projects related to the subject.
The opening lecture of the conference will be given by Sebastiaan Faber, professor at Oberlin College (Ohio, United States) and Hispanist, author of books such as Franco desenterrado. La segunda Transición Española (2022) and Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War: History, Fiction, Photography (2018).
Some of the topics of the presentation will focus on the healthcare received by the brigade members, with a presentation by Hana Bortlovà-Vondráková and Carles Brasó (grandson of the surgeon and brigade member Moisès Broggi, a figure in the history of medicine known for his healthcare work during the Civil War). Among many other topics, there will be presentations on the International Brigades in popular memory in Barcelona and the brigade members in fiction and comics.
Under the title 1st International Conference on Research and Memory of the International Brigades, the conference is organized by the Contemporary History and the World Today Section of the UB’s Faculty of Geography and History and the CRAI Library at Pavelló de la República.
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