Event Details

The Centre for War and Diplomacy and FASS Health Hub will host a joint seminar, welcoming Dr Jorge Marco (University of Bath) to speak be 'Left-wing Cultures of Sex and Foreign Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: Conflicts around Free Love'.

Centre for War and Diplomacy (CWD) and FASS Health Hub joint seminar: Dr Jorge Marco (University of Bath), 'Left-wing Cultures of Sex and Foreign Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: Conflicts around Free Love'

Friday 21st February 2025, 13.00-14.00 (GMT): Online only via Microsoft Teams

All are welcome to attend this online event, by joining the Microsoft Teams link (TBC).

Jorge Marco is a Senior Lecturer in History and Politics at the University of Bath. His research has focused on the Spanish Civil War from various perspectives: cultures of the anti-fascist guerrilla movement, Francoist violence, the transnational dimension of war experiences, the role of psychoactive substances in the armed conflict, and subjectivity in historiographical narratives. He has published monographs such as Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities and Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain (2016), The Fabric of Fear: Building Franco’s New Society in Spain, 1936–1950 (2023, co-authored with Gutmaro Gómez Bravo), and Paradise in Hell: Alcohol and Drugs in the Spanish Civil War (2024). He is also the author of two novels.

Seminar Abstract:

A sexual revolution took place in Western culture in the early 20th century, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. A new sexual morality, promoted by the sexual reform movement and a new wave of feminism, advocated for new sexual freedoms for both women and men, beyond the traditional sexuality regulated by reproduction within heterosexual marriage. These transgressive proposals divided the feminist movement and posed a challenge to the various ideological cultures of the left. Similarly, the implementation of these freedoms was experienced differently by men and women, sometimes leading to contradictions, misunderstandings, and conflicts. This talk addresses the multiple experiences of men and women in the field of this new sexual morality in a particular context: the Spanish Civil War. It analyses these experiences of free love by foreign volunteers who went to Spain to fight fascism in a very peculiar emotional context: the proximity to death. The analysis is based on first-hand testimonies such as letters, diaries, and memoirs.