Have you ever been interested in learning about the Great war? On Wednesday You’ll have your chance. Georgia Southern University’s History department will be host to a conference on the first world war entitled “The Great War that Changed the World, 1914-1918”.

Students will have an opportunity to see and learn more about the war and it’s beginnings.

“You’re going to see some of the changes that took place in the conflict and then looking,even, at neutral powers, powers like the Netherlands that weren’t really miliarilty involved or weren’t militarily involved in the conflict but see to the degree to which they were heavily impacted by the conflict,”said Brian Feltman, Ph. D., assistant professor of history at Georgia Southern.

The conference will host a variety of historians from around the southeast, including a number from Georgia Southern. Professors Bill Allison, Ph. D., Ahmet Akturk, Ph. D., Brian Feltman, Ph. D., Jacek Lucbecki, Ph. D.,LTC Gary Morea, and Johnathan O’Neill, Ph. D., are all affiliated with Georgia Southern and will be presenting at the conference.

The conference will be presented in two panels, with one panel focusing on the outbreak of the war and the second panel focusing on the war’s effects beyond the battlefield.

Selected papers to be presented will include “Women and the Experience of War, 1914-1918” by Allison Scardino Belzer, Ph. D., “The Polish Experience in WWI through the life of Jozef Pilsudski” by Jacek Lubecki, Ph. D., “The Impact of the Evolution of Air Power in WWI in the Egyptian/Palestiniaian Front” by LTC Gary J. Morea.

This will be an opportunity for students to interact with historians with a great deal of knowledge about the first world war, in one place.

“I think this is a great opportunity where you don’t have to read so many sources about an event. This panel brings so many experts, with so many areas of different specialities,” said Ahmet Akturk, Ph. D., assistant professor of history.

The history department hopes that this will help generate interest in a new certificate program for history students.

“The history department is trying to start a war and society certificate program and that would basically function much like a lot of the other certificate programs on campus would function and so you would take a certain number of courses that are within the selected group and then you would graduate with a certificate in war and society,“ Feltman said.

This certification is still pending approval, but hopes are that it will be in place by next year.

The conference will take place in the Nessmith-Lane ballroom from 3-6 p.m. on Wednesday.