The Glasgow University’s Great War Project in 2018 resulted also in the re-print of the famous novel of Bertha von Suttner “Lay Down Your Arms!” Editor Dr Barbara Burns, Reader in German and Dean of Graduate Studies University of Glasgow, took the opportunity to reconsider and foreground the various facets of Bertha von Suttner’s achievements. Dr. Burns research took her to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection in Philadelphia, and she gave papers on Bertha von Suttner at several conferences and public engagement events on the themes of war and objections to war. Burns’ research on the lifework of first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize due to her pacifist vision, her skills and her sheer tenacity in pursuing her humanitarian peace goals in the face of opposition has yielded insights into the early development of calls for a united Europe and an end to the arms race.
Dr Burns will visit the Bertha von Suttner Peace Institute during Peace week, on 21st and 22nd of September 2019.