This workshop will examine histories of humanitarianism from the 19th century to the present, starting with a series of strategies and institutions on both sides of the Atlantic designed to provide emergency assistance and humanitarian interventions across the globe. Such practices were rooted in earlier colonial and religious missions, in pre-modern government claims of responsibility for co-religionists even beyond national borders, and in the activities of domestic relief organizations. More recently such activity has expanded into what one historian has called “global aid cultures,” as both religious and secular organizations have become global players seeking to rescue, save, and relieve designated beneficiary populations beyond their own borders.
The workshop will address the following questions:
1)What were the roots of international humanitarian organizations? To what extent did they draw on the rhetoric and practices of earlier religious and colonial missions? On those of domestic governmental and voluntary organizations?
2)What were the motivations for providing assistance, and how did they shift over time? How did the rhetoric and visual iconography of aid change? How were they shaped by gender?
3)How did individual motivations differ depending on the gender, class, religious, and cultural background of aid workers? How were these affected by professionalization and bureaucratization? 4)How did religious humanitarianism differ among various religions and denominations? Were there sharp distinctions between religiously, culturally, and politically justified activities? 5)What was the relationship between states and NGOs, and between NGOs and IOs? To what extent did humanitarian aid become a tool of foreign policy, and with what results?
6)What did these projects look like through their eyes of their so-called beneficiaries?
The workshop will be held at the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC and the University of Maryland, College Park, USA on March 7-8, 2014.