PUBLIC LECTURE and PHD SEMINAR: Prof. Lauren BENTON (Yale), "The Atrocity Paradox : from Limited to Extreme Violence in Empire" (Ottignies/Louvain-la-Neuve: UCLouvain, 15 OCT 2025) [DEADLINE 30 SEP 2025]

(image source: UCLouvain)

Abstract:

On the occasion of Prof. Lauren Benton’s (Yale University) visit and conference to the Louvain Lab for Law, History and Society (LHS) at UCLouvain on 15 October 2025, a doctoral research seminar will be held, open to all PhD candidates in law, history, and legal history in Belgium. This workshop will take the form of an encounter between Prof. Benton and early-career researchers, giving participants the opportunity to discuss their doctoral research on one of the following themes: History of law and justice, across all periods History of empires Global and comparative history Colonial history and the history of colonial law History of violence History of international law 

Each participant is invited to give a 10-minute presentation in English on their doctoral research, followed by a discussion with Prof. Benton. To take part in this workshop, please send your paper proposal (350-word abstract + CV) to quentin dot verreycken at uclouvain dot be no later than 30 September 2025. Lauren Benton is Barton M. Biggs Professor of History and Professor of Law at Yale University. Her research focuses primarily on the global history of empires and the history of international law. Her most recent book is They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence (Princeton University Press, 2024).

Practical:

15/10/2025 2:00PM-5:00PM UCLouvain, campus Louvain-la-Neuve Salle Dabin, Thomas More Building Place Montesquieu 2, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve

(more information here)

COLLOQUIUM: Blasphemy and Violence. Interdependencies since 1760 (Ghent, 4-5 March 2020)

(Source: Blasphemyviolence2020)

We learned of a colloquium on the interdependency between blasphemy and violence in Ghent. Here the programme:

Venue

The conference takes place in the large conference room of Liberas in the centre of Ghent - Kramersplein 23, 9000 Ghent.

Wednesday 4 March 2020

18:00 - 19:30      Alain Cabantous (Paris, FR): Violence et Sacré ou le Blasphème en Révolution

Thursday 5 March 2020

9:00 - 9:30: Welcome and Opening

9:00 - 9:10           Peter Laroy / Christoph de Spiegeleer (Ghent, BE): Welcome to Liberas

9:10 - 9:30           Eveline Bouwers (Mainz, DE) & David Nash (Oxford, GB): Introduction

9:30 - 11:00: Section 1: Blasphemy as a Companion to Political Transition

9:30 - 9:50           Laura Thompson (Boston, US / Tunis, TN): Protecting Muslims’ Feelings, Protecting Public Order: Tunisian Blasphemy Cases from the 19th Century through the Arab Spring

9:50 - 10:10        Nadezhda Beliakova (Moscow, RU): On Blasphemy and Violence during the Revolution and the Construction of Socialism in the Soviet Union

10:10 - 10:30      Julio de la Cueva (Toledo, ES): Blasphemy, War and Revolution: Spain, 1936

10:30 - 11:00      Comments and Discussion

11:00 - 11:30      Coffee Break

11:30 - 13:00: Section 2: Blasphemy as a Tool for Emancipation

11:30 - 11:50      Emilia Musumeci (Teramo, IT): David Lazzaretti: Martyr, Rebel, or Heretic? A Puzzling Case in Post-Unification Italy

11:50 - 12:10      Matthew Kerry (Stirling, GB): Blasphemy in Early Twentieth-Century Spain: Vulgarity, Violence and the Crowd

12:10 - 12:30      Marcin Skladanowski (Lublin, PL): Pokémon in the Church: The Case of Ruslan Sokolovskiy and the Limits of Religious Performance in Contemporary Russia

12:30 - 13:00      Comments and Discussion

13:00 - 14:00      Lunch Break

14:00 - 15:30: Section 3: Blasphemy as an Instrument to Confront the Secular

14:00 - 14:20      Marco Omes (Pisa, IT): Blasphemy, Religious Adherence and Political Loyalty in the Roman States during the French Occupations (1789 - 1799 and 1808 - 1814)

14:20 - 14:40      Dirk Johannsen (Oslo, NO): Blasphemy as a Cultural Strategy. The Case of the Nordic Modern Breakthrough, 1871 - 1890

14:40 - 15:00      Hussien Soliman (Alexandria,EG): Blasphemy as a Justification for Violence against Freethinkers in Modern Egypt

15:00 - 15:30      Comments and Discussion

15:30 - 16:00      Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:00: Section 4: Blasphemy as a Strategy for Suppressing the Religious Other

16:00 - 16:20      Christoffer Leber (Munich, DE): The New Martyr. The Jatho Affair in Imperial Germany between Blasphemy, Freethought, and Religious Reform (c. 1910 - 1915)

16:20 - 16:40      Yvonne Sherwood (Kent, GB): Blasphemy, Violence, and the Production of Minorities

16:40 - 17:00      Comments and Discussion

17:00 - 18:00: Concluding remarks

More info about the conference can be found here

JOURNAL SECTION: Religion & Violence (French History XXXIII (2019), No. 2)

(image source: OUP)

French History has a special section on religion and violence in its latest issue. Some articles touch on legal history:

Political Justice and the Outbreak of the Wars of Religion (Stuart Carroll)
Abstract:

This article presents new archival evidence which illuminates the dynamic of the violence in the Agenais, the ‘laboratory of religious violence.’ It shows how social networks coalesced in 1557-61 and formed into armed factions. It argues that, contrary to what is usually claimed, Protestant violence was not confined to iconoclasm, but was from its inception a highly politicized movement prepared to use force against identified enemies. The kernel of factionalism was a feud, which led to the creation of rival militias well before the outbreak of full-scale military campaigns in 1562. The violence was highly organized, not spontaneous and not inter-communal. In this respect the events in Guyenne are indicative of the political conflicts that would shape the ancien régime and even anticipate the violence that would attend its fall.

Violence by Royal Command: A Judicial ‘Moment’ (1574–1575) (Penny Roberts)
Abstract:

The Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre remains the defining event of religious violence in sixteenth-century France. Its causes have preoccupied historians, its consequences far less so. While some contemporary observers called into question the nature of absolute royal authority, others defended its use as long as it was cautious and judicious. In the wake of the massacre, however, the opposite seemed to be true, as a series of measures were taken against leading aristocrats at court and in the provinces. These included the close surveillance and virtual imprisonment of the king’s brother and the princes of the blood, swift and exemplary justice meted out to some of their close servants, the incarceration of two marshals of France, and the judicial execution of Protestant commanders. Above all, this ‘judicial moment’ of 1574-5 suggested that the monarchy was engaged on a new and threatening track, as the agent of violence against its own nobility, fuelling further discontent. 

(read more on OUP's website)