Workshop programme
Unequal war: demographic and social-historical perspectives
9.–11.9.2026
Tampere University
Venue: University main building (Kalevantie 4), room D13
Wednesday 9th September
10:30 Welcoming words
11:00–12:00 Keynote
Dora L. Costa (University of California)
The Long Shadow of War
12:00–13:30 Lunch
13:30–15:30 Session 1: Uneven selection and consequences
Nancy Stiegler & Tomiwa Fabohunda (University of the Western Cape)
Stratified Sacrifice: Racial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in South Africa’s Second World War Service
Pierre D. Dindi & Nancy Stiegler (National Registration Bureau; University of the Western Cape)
Statistical Invisibility and Unequal War Exposure: Of Census Undercounting and African Military Recruitment
Noloyiso Vondo & Nancy Stiegler (University of the Western Cape)
Long-Term Health Consequences of Childhood Adversity and Social Inequality During World War I
15:30–16.00 Coffee
16:00 – 18:00 Session 2: Unequal War
Ilari Taskinen, Virva Liski & Ville Kivimäki (Tampere University)
Soldiers’ Mortality Risk in War: Linking a Comprehensive Mortality Database to Individual-Level Longitudinal Data
Virva Liski, Ilari Taskinen & Ville Kivimäki (Tampere University)
Social, Health, and Demographic Determinants of Wartime Morbidity: Evidence from Finnish WWII Army
Joanna Ciantar & Emma Raitoharju (Tampere University)
Follow-up Study of the Descendants of Finnish World War II Soldiers: Effects of War Exposure on Offspring Health
Helena Pirttisaari-Sundström (University of Helsinki)
Unequal War: The Case of Finnish Border Troops and Border Areas during the Continuation War (1941–1944)
18:00 Get-together and drinks at Cafe Toivo, Tampere University Main Building, Kalevantie 4
Thursday 10th September
9:00–10:00 Keynote
Ralf Futselaar (Erasmus University of Rotterdam, NIOD)
A flight without end? Overcoming the social, economic and physical consequences of war
10:00–10:30 Coffee
10:30-12:30 Session 3: Scarring and life courses
Erling Häggström Gunfridsson & Elina Nordung Omnell (Umeå University)
Born under Crisis: Fertility and Early-Life Exposure during the Finnish War, 1808–1809.
Jarmo Peltola, Leena Embom & Sakari Saaritsa (University of Helsinki)
Scarred City: Exploring Lifespan and Mortality Patterns among Former Civil War Participants in Tampere
Tuuli Hurme (University of Helsinki)
The Impact of the 1918 Finnish Civil War in Child Health in Helsinki, Finland
Robert J. Quinlan (Washington State University)
Combat Exposure and the Life Course of World War I Survivors: Differential Prospects for Marriage, Divorce, Fertility, and Age at Death of Veterans of the American Expeditionary Forces in France & Belgium 1917-1919
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–16:00 Session 4: Sharing the burden: Mobilization during the Second World War
Jonathan Fennell (King’s College London)
Exploring the Social Foundations of Strategy in the Second World War
Doug Atkinson (Brigham Young University)
Dying for Democracy: Technology and the Battlefield Cost of the Second World War
Kevin Fahey (University of Nottingham)
Techniques for Extracting Attitudes from Historical Texts
Jake Gasson (King’s College London)
‘Something is the matter with our army’: Towards A Collective Biography of the Italian Army in 1941.
18:00 Dinner at restaurant Tampella, Kelloportinkatu 1, Tampere
Friday 11th September
10:00–11:00 Keynote
Kateryna Maltseva (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy)
Inequalities in the shadow of war: Uneven exposure to adversity in Ukrainian society
11:00–12:30 Lunch
12:30–14:00 Session 5: Individual approaches to war and inequality
Grzegorz Podruczny (Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań)
“The misery of poor people cannot be described in human words.” Violence against civilians during the Russian invasion of 1759.
Jenna Byers (Dublin City University)
The Fourth Indian Division as a case study of ethnic differentiation in the British Army in World War II
Søren Werther Kjær Rasmussen (University of Southern Denmark)
Equal Rights, Unequal Opportunities: Compensation for Danish Resistance Veterans after 1945
14:00–14:15 Coffee
14:15–15:00 Final discussion