Confirmed keynote speakers - Professor Joanna Bourke (Birkbeck, University of London) and Professor David Andress (University of Portsmouth)

We are living in violent times. During the past decade we have witnessed terrorist attacks, protracted international wars, an explosion of pan-Arabian revolutions, and now the socio-political fallout of an unprecedented economic crisis. The increasing inequality both within and between societies has led some observers to invoke the violence of unjust and unequal socio-economic structures. Yet political violence is, of course, far from a new phenomenon. From revolutionary violence and terror to genocide, total war and the process of decolonization, political violence is a constant theme throughout human history. History has repeatedly thrown up the problem of political violence, how to define, explain and understand it; how to justify, excuse and legitimise it; and how to go beyond and end it. This major one-day conference seeks to reassess such questions today.