The Spanish Civil War was a crucial moment of international mobilization, ideological polarization, and transnational activism in the first half of the twentieth century. Volunteers who joined both sides of the conflict entered the watr with diverse motivations shaped by ideological, political, social, and personal factors. Their experiences represent unique insights into the cultural, political, and military history of the twentieth century. Yet the end of the civil war did not mark the end of their stories. Their fates continued not only into the following global conflict, but also into the decades that came after. Many of their life stories ultimately faded into partial obscurity—an obscurity that, in many countries, persists to this day. 

The conference seeks to connect existing scholarship on the Spanish Civil War with broader questions of volunteerism, transnational networks, political mobilization, and historical memory. It will focus on volunteers’ motivations, their military- and everyday experiences, and their postwar trajectories. In addition, the conference will explore the ways in which these experiences have been commemorated, reinterpreted, and forgotten over the decades. Methodologically, it is open to the challenges of contemporary research, from digital humanities to oral history. 

The conference aims to reopen debates on the Spanish Civil War as a key transnational conflict of the modern era. We welcome contributions focusing on interbrigadists and other Republican volunteers, as well as those who fought on the Francoist side. 

The organizers intend to create an interdisciplinary forum and therefore welcome papers not only from historians but also from scholars in anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, art history, political science, and museum studies.