Despite the emphasis on the multicultural character and comparatively tolerant disposition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in contemporary historiography, violence constituted a notable dimension of quotidian life in the noble republic. Physical violence — encompassing both its interpersonal and inter-group manifestations — was not merely widespread and socially accepted, but was actively mobilized in the service of statecraft and the maintenance of social order. Recent scholarship has significantly nuanced and contextualized the prevailing peaceable and tolerant image of the Commonwealth.

It is against this historiographical background that this two-day workshop invites scholars working on the history of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to present and discuss their original research pertaining to history of violence, reflect on methodology and discuss recent developments in the field. We are particularly interested in the cases researching violence from the perspective of commoners – peasants, artisans, merchants, urban population.

Proposed contributions may address, though are not limited to, the following themes:

1. Inter-estate violence. Physical and structural violence underpins both the hierarchical social order and the economic model of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Contributions may examine case studies on the exercise of power and acts of resistance, legal safeguards ensuring hierarchical social order, and forms of resistance to economies of domination. Several of these questions have been brought to the fore by the growing body of scholarship associated with the new people's history (historia ludowa) approach.
2. Inter-religious violence. Although Juliusz Tazbir's influential thesis of the "state without stakes" remains deeply entrenched in historiographical discourse, religious difference was a cause for violent interactions in the confessionally divided Commonwealth. We invite considerations on which religious practices sparked violent responses, and larger questions, such as whether religious difference was the main cause or a contributing factor to violent altercations.
3. Inter-ethnic violence. As the widespread trope of the multicultural Commonwealth attests, Poland-Lithuania was home to a plurality of religious and ethnic communities. While attributing violence specifically to ethnic, as distinct from religious or occupational, affiliations presents methodological challenges, ethnicity nonetheless played a demonstrable role in both interpersonal disputes and large-scale collective conflicts.
4. Gendered violence. Gender roles regulated and shaped the experience of violence, therefore gender is not only a useful, but a rather inextricable category for historical research. We encourage submissions that exemplify the subversion of gender role imposed limitations, discourses that shaped perception of gender, gendered bodily practices, and gendered legal violence.
5. Violent discourses. Since the publication of David Nirenberg's Communities of Violence, scholarly attention has turned to the ways in which discourses concerning ethnic and religious minorities directly shaped the justification and perpetration of violence. Discourses on ruthless peasants and disorderly women were used to de-/legitimize claims on the prevalent social order.
6. Historiographical turns and the study of violence. Recent methodological interests in the humanities — including the spatial turn, somatic turn, and the study of borders and mobility — open new and productive vistas for research on the history of violence.

Framework:

• We invite proposals for individual papers (abstract up to 300 words, author's name and surname, affiliation, and a short CV up to 200 words). Please submit your proposals to vilnius.violence.workshop@gmail.com
• The submission deadline is on Friday, 17 July. Decisions will be communicated on Monday, 3 August. The workshop will take place in Vilnius, 12-13 November 2026.
• The German Historical Institute Warsaw and Research Centre Ukraine – Max Weber Foundation will cover accommodation costs. Travel expenses may be covered upon request, prioritizing early-career scholars.
• The workshop is organized by the Vilnius Branch of the German Historical Institute Warsaw and will take place at Vilnius University Faculty of History.

Contact: vilnius.violence.workshop@gmail.com 

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