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1968 and its legacies

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To mark the 50th anniversary of the progressive mass protests of 1968, this six-week series of events will consist of workshops, film screenings, and a three-day symposium. These will bring together a large number of high-profile activists who were ‘ringleaders’ of the protests as well as artists and filmmakers who broke new ground in the accompanying counterculture. These will be accompanied by a wide range of researchers from various disciplines. The series will deal with events and experiences of ’68 internationally, including in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, the USA, and many other countries.

Please email any specific questions about the ‘1968 and its legacies’ series to: 1968@kcl.ac.uk

Organizing committee: Mark Shiel (convener), Patrick Ffrench, Paolo Gerbaudo, Sharon Gewirtz, Alex Loftus, David Treece

With thanks to the King’s Together Fund; and to the following departments at King’s College London: French; Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies; Geography; Digital Humanities; Film Studies; and the School of Education, Communication, and Society

Methods

Symposium, Friday, June 15th to Sunday, June 17th, 2018 inclusive Three full days of panels, keynotes, round tables, evening film screenings, and an evening reception

The following special guests are confirmed for the symposium on June 15th-17th, 2018:

Tariq Ali, Kathleen Cleaver, Phil Cohen, Jochen Gerz, Francisco Foot Hardman, Sylvia Harvey,
Patricia Holland, Gerd-Rainer Horn, David James, Bernadette Mcaliskey, Juliet Mitchell, Antonio Negri, Anne Querrien, Mark Rudd, Helke Sander & Allan Siegel

These ‘veterans’ of ’68 will be joined by a variety of cultural historians and social scientists in wide-ranging discussion and debate on the nature of the mass protest movements of that era, their achievements and shortcomings, their meaning then and now, and the lessons that they offer for today.

Workshops, every Tuesday, May 8th – June 12th, 2018:

  • Workshop 1, “1968, Cinema and politics”, Tuesday, May 8th, 2018
  • Workshop 2, “1968, Popular music, counterculture and resistance in Brazil”, Tuesday, May 15th, 2018
  • Workshop 3, “1968, Geography, space, and place”, Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018
  • Workshop 4, “1968, Technology and social movements”, Tuesday, May 29th, 2018
  • Workshop 5, “1968, Anti-psychiatry, therapeutic communities, institutional critiques of medicine”, Tuesday, June 5th, 2018
  • Workshop 6, “1968, Schools and Universities”, Tuesday, June 12th, 2018

Work that has informed 1968 and its legacies includes:

In 2018, a number of other events are taking place in London, which reflect on 1968 and its legacies. These include:

The Radical Film Network film festival in May 2018 on the subject of 1968. Their call for contributions and participants is here:
https://radicalfilmnetwork.com/projects/1968-season/

“Subversive Intent & Beyond: Surrealism, Politics, Sexuality”, a conference relating to 1968, hosted by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Cambridge, 1-2 June 2018:
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/27448

The Barbican is hosting a series of films on June 2-3, 2018 dedicated to Second Wave Feminist Filmmakers, co-sponsored by the Women’s Film Preservation Fund:
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/series/artists-activists-second-wave-feminist-filmmakers

Conferences

Six workshops will examine various aspects of the progressive mass protests of 1968 and their influence in various walks of life, including cinema, music, education, the social sciences, and medicine. Each workshop will be convened by a specialist based at King’s College London who will be joined by at least one visiting speaker and an audience of up to forty people. There will be an emphasis on interaction and open discussion, given the workshop format. Most workshops will run from 10am until 3pm on the dates below. As detailed below, each workshop is also associated with a film screening in the evening (although workshops and screenings are separately ticketed and attendance at one does not require attendance at the other).

  • Workshop 1, Tuesday, May 8th, 2018, “1968, Cinema and politics”
    Convener Mark Shiel, Department of Film Studies, Ros Murray, Department of French, KCL, and Margaret Dickinson, filmmaker and author of Rogue Reels: Oppositional Film in Britain, 1945 -1990 (BFI Publishing, 1999). Followed by screening of Grands soirs et petits matins (William Klein, 1978) at the BFI Southbank, 615pm 
  • Workshop 2, Tuesday, May 15th, 2018, “1968, Popular music, counterculture and resistance in Brazil”
    Convener David Treece, Department of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies, with guest Professor Frederico Coelho, Department of Letters, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) followed by screening of Macunaima (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969), at the Nash Lecture Theatre, KCL, Strand, 630pm 
  • Workshop 3, Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018, “1968, space, politics, and radical geography” 
    Convener Alex Loftus, Department of Geography, with guest Professor Mustafa Dikec, École d’urbanisme Paris  followed by screening of One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968), at the BFI Southbank, 615pm 
  • Workshop 4, Tuesday, May 29th, 2018, “Social movements and their technologies, 1968 and today”
    Convener Paolo Gerbaudo, Department of Digital Humanities, with Ludovica Rogers (architect, activist, and member of Debt Resistance UK), Photini Vrikki (Research Fellow in Digital Humanities at Brunel University London), and Aaron Bastani (Royal Holloway University of London, founder and editor of Novara Media) followed by screening of Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler, 1969), at the BFI Southbank, 610pm 
  • Workshop 5, Tuesday, June 5th, 2018, “1968, Anti-psychiatry, and institutional psychotherapy”
    Convener Patrick Ffrench, Department of French, with guests John Foot, School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol, Tim Snelson and Ray Macauley, School of Art, Media and American Studies, University of East Anglia followed by screening of In Two Minds (Ken Loach, BBC TV, 1967) and discussion with producer Tony Garnett; Nash Lecture Theatre, KCL, Strand, 630pm
  • Workshop 6, Tuesday, June 12th, 2018, double workshop on 1968, schools, and universities
    Part 1, 11am-1pm: ‘1968 and English schooling: Antecedents, intersections, consequences’ Convener Ken Jones (Senior Policy Officer, National Education Union and Emeritus Professor of Education, Goldsmiths), with Martin Lawn (Honorary Professor, Centre for Educational Sociology, University of Edinburgh) and Jane Shallice (writer and activist).
    Part 2, 2-4pm: ‘Feminism, Activism, and Academia from 1968 to 2018’
    Convener Kelly Coate, School of Education, Communication, and Society, with Avtar Brah (Sociology, Birkbeck), Miriam David (Institute of Education, University of London), Gail Lewis (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck), Pat Mahony (Visiting Professor, Education, KCL), Nira Yuval-Davis (Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees, and Belonging, University of East London).

There is no film screening on the evening of June 12th, following the workshop on ‘1968, schools, and universities’; however, there is a related screening at the BFI Southbank on Friday, June 15th, i.e. a screening of the film Columbia Revolt (Newsreel, 1968) about the student occupation of Columbia University in March-April 1968 – please see ‘Films’ web page above for separate booking link

These workshops will be necessarily limited in size to a maximum audience of forty people and priority will be given to current and recent PhD students, faculty members, and other specialized researchers. Registration in advance will be required.

Please email any questions about the workshops in general, including registration, to: 1968@kcl.ac.uk

For specific questions about a particular workshop, please email the convener (their email addresses are given in the details of each workshop if you follow the links above).

Organizing committee: Mark Shiel (convener), Patrick Ffrench, Paolo Gerbaudo, Sharon Gewirtz, Alex Loftus, David Treece

With thanks to the King’s Together Fund; and to the following departments at King’s College London: French; Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies; Geography; Digital Humanities; Film Studies; and the School of Education, Communication, and Society

Exhibitions

Film screenings

A series of screenings of feature films, political documentaries, and experimental shorts made in or about mass protest movements circa 1968:

  • Tuesday, May 8th, 2018, 610pm, BFI Southbank – Grands soirs et petits matins (aka Maydays, William Klein, 1978), followed by q&a with the director William Klein
  • Tuesday, May 15th, 630pm, KCL – Macunaima (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969), introduced by David Treece, and followed by discussion with Frederico Coelho (PUC-Rio); Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, KCL, Strand campus 
  • Tuesday, May 22nd, 615pm, BFI Southbank – One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968) 
  • Tuesday, May 29th, 610pm, BFI Southbank – Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler, 1969) 
  • Tuesday, June 5th, 2018, 630pm, KCL – In Two Minds (Ken Loach, BBC TV, 1967), followed by discussion with producer Tony Garnett; Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, KCL, Strand campus 
  • Friday, June 15th, 2018, 6pm, BFI Southbank – Columbia Revolt (Newsreel 1968), America, aka Amerika (Newsreel, 1969), and The Case Against Lincoln Center (Newsreel, 1968), with discussion and q&a with Newsreel founder member Allan Siegel 
  • Friday, June 15th, KCL – World in Action: The Demonstration (Granada Television, original broadcast March 18th, 1968; with thanks to Park Circus Group – SHOWN IN THE SYMPOSIUM ONLY
  • Saturday, June 16th, KCL – The Hornsey Film (Pat Holland, 1968) – about the student occupation of Hornsey College of Art, with discussion and q&a with the director, Pat Holland – SHOWN IN THE SYMPOSIUM ONLY
  • Sunday, June 17th, KCL – Subjektitude (1967) and Break the Power of the Manipulators (1968) by the German feminist filmmaker Helke Sander, with Sander in discussion and q&a – SHOWN IN THE SYMPOSIUM ONLY

Please check this website regularly for updates. Email any specific questions about the screenings to:

1968@kcl.ac.uk

We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of our partners at the BFI, especially David Edgar, Events Programmer

Organizing committee: Mark Shiel (convener), Patrick Ffrench, Paolo Gerbaudo, Sharon Gewirtz, Alex Loftus, David Treece

With thanks to the King’s Together Fund; and to the following departments at King’s College London: French; Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies; Geography; Digital Humanities; Film Studies; and the School of Education, Communication, and Society

With thanks to the King’s Together Fund; and to the following departments at King’s College London: French; Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies; Geography; Digital Humanities; Film Studies; and the School of Education, Communication, and Society

We are pleased to collaborate with Third World Newsreel (New York) on the screening of Newsreel films; and with the German Screen Studies Network (London) on the screening of films by Helke Sander

Work that has informed 1968 and its legacies includes:

In 2018, a number of other events are taking place in London, which reflect on 1968 and its legacies. These include:

The Radical Film Network film festival in May 2018 on the subject of 1968. Their call for contributions and participants is here:
https://radicalfilmnetwork.com/projects/1968-season/

“Subversive Intent & Beyond: Surrealism, Politics, Sexuality”, a conference relating to 1968, hosted by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Cambridge, 1-2 June 2018:
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/27448

The Barbican is hosting a series of films on June 2-3, 2018 dedicated to Second Wave Feminist Filmmakers, co-sponsored by the Women’s Film Preservation Fund:
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/series/artists-activists-second-wave-feminist-filmmakers

Conferences

Six workshops will examine various aspects of the progressive mass protests of 1968 and their influence in various walks of life, including cinema, music, education, the social sciences, and medicine. Each workshop will be convened by a specialist based at King’s College London who will be joined by at least one visiting speaker and an audience of up to forty people. There will be an emphasis on interaction and open discussion, given the workshop format. Most workshops will run from 10am until 3pm on the dates below. As detailed below, each workshop is also associated with a film screening in the evening (although workshops and screenings are separately ticketed and attendance at one does not require attendance at the other).

  • Workshop 1, Tuesday, May 8th, 2018, “1968, Cinema and politics”
    Convener Mark Shiel, Department of Film Studies, Ros Murray, Department of French, KCL, and Margaret Dickinson, filmmaker and author of Rogue Reels: Oppositional Film in Britain, 1945 -1990 (BFI Publishing, 1999). Followed by screening of Grands soirs et petits matins (William Klein, 1978) at the BFI Southbank, 615pm 
  • Workshop 2, Tuesday, May 15th, 2018, “1968, Popular music, counterculture and resistance in Brazil”
    Convener David Treece, Department of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies, with guest Professor Frederico Coelho, Department of Letters, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) followed by screening of Macunaima (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969), at the Nash Lecture Theatre, KCL, Strand, 630pm 
  • Workshop 3, Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018, “1968, space, politics, and radical geography” 
    Convener Alex Loftus, Department of Geography, with guest Professor Mustafa Dikec, École d’urbanisme Paris  followed by screening of One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968), at the BFI Southbank, 615pm 
  • Workshop 4, Tuesday, May 29th, 2018, “Social movements and their technologies, 1968 and today”
    Convener Paolo Gerbaudo, Department of Digital Humanities, with Ludovica Rogers (architect, activist, and member of Debt Resistance UK), Photini Vrikki (Research Fellow in Digital Humanities at Brunel University London), and Aaron Bastani (Royal Holloway University of London, founder and editor of Novara Media) followed by screening of Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler, 1969), at the BFI Southbank, 610pm 
  • Workshop 5, Tuesday, June 5th, 2018, “1968, Anti-psychiatry, and institutional psychotherapy”
    Convener Patrick Ffrench, Department of French, with guests John Foot, School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol, Tim Snelson and Ray Macauley, School of Art, Media and American Studies, University of East Anglia followed by screening of In Two Minds (Ken Loach, BBC TV, 1967) and discussion with producer Tony Garnett; Nash Lecture Theatre, KCL, Strand, 630pm
  • Workshop 6, Tuesday, June 12th, 2018, double workshop on 1968, schools, and universities
    Part 1, 11am-1pm: ‘1968 and English schooling: Antecedents, intersections, consequences’ Convener Ken Jones (Senior Policy Officer, National Education Union and Emeritus Professor of Education, Goldsmiths), with Martin Lawn (Honorary Professor, Centre for Educational Sociology, University of Edinburgh) and Jane Shallice (writer and activist).
    Part 2, 2-4pm: ‘Feminism, Activism, and Academia from 1968 to 2018’
    Convener Kelly Coate, School of Education, Communication, and Society, with Avtar Brah (Sociology, Birkbeck), Miriam David (Institute of Education, University of London), Gail Lewis (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck), Pat Mahony (Visiting Professor, Education, KCL), Nira Yuval-Davis (Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees, and Belonging, University of East London).

There is no film screening on the evening of June 12th, following the workshop on ‘1968, schools, and universities’; however, there is a related screening at the BFI Southbank on Friday, June 15th, i.e. a screening of the film Columbia Revolt (Newsreel, 1968) about the student occupation of Columbia University in March-April 1968 – please see ‘Films’ web page above for separate booking link

These workshops will be necessarily limited in size to a maximum audience of forty people and priority will be given to current and recent PhD students, faculty members, and other specialized researchers. Registration in advance will be required.

Please email any questions about the workshops in general, including registration, to: 1968@kcl.ac.uk

For specific questions about a particular workshop, please email the convener (their email addresses are given in the details of each workshop if you follow the links above).

Organizing committee: Mark Shiel (convener), Patrick Ffrench, Paolo Gerbaudo, Sharon Gewirtz, Alex Loftus, David Treece

With thanks to the King’s Together Fund; and to the following departments at King’s College London: French; Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies; Geography; Digital Humanities; Film Studies; and the School of Education, Communication, and Society

Exhibitions

Film screenings

A series of screenings of feature films, political documentaries, and experimental shorts made in or about mass protest movements circa 1968:

  • Tuesday, May 8th, 2018, 610pm, BFI Southbank – Grands soirs et petits matins (aka Maydays, William Klein, 1978), followed by q&a with the director William Klein
  • Tuesday, May 15th, 630pm, KCL – Macunaima (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969), introduced by David Treece, and followed by discussion with Frederico Coelho (PUC-Rio); Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, KCL, Strand campus 
  • Tuesday, May 22nd, 615pm, BFI Southbank – One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968) 
  • Tuesday, May 29th, 610pm, BFI Southbank – Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler, 1969) 
  • Tuesday, June 5th, 2018, 630pm, KCL – In Two Minds (Ken Loach, BBC TV, 1967), followed by discussion with producer Tony Garnett; Nash Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, KCL, Strand campus 
  • Friday, June 15th, 2018, 6pm, BFI Southbank – Columbia Revolt (Newsreel 1968), America, aka Amerika (Newsreel, 1969), and The Case Against Lincoln Center (Newsreel, 1968), with discussion and q&a with Newsreel founder member Allan Siegel 
  • Friday, June 15th, KCL – World in Action: The Demonstration (Granada Television, original broadcast March 18th, 1968; with thanks to Park Circus Group – SHOWN IN THE SYMPOSIUM ONLY
  • Saturday, June 16th, KCL – The Hornsey Film (Pat Holland, 1968) – about the student occupation of Hornsey College of Art, with discussion and q&a with the director, Pat Holland – SHOWN IN THE SYMPOSIUM ONLY
  • Sunday, June 17th, KCL – Subjektitude (1967) and Break the Power of the Manipulators (1968) by the German feminist filmmaker Helke Sander, with Sander in discussion and q&a – SHOWN IN THE SYMPOSIUM ONLY

Please check this website regularly for updates. Email any specific questions about the screenings to:

1968@kcl.ac.uk

We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of our partners at the BFI, especially David Edgar, Events Programmer

Organizing committee: Mark Shiel (convener), Patrick Ffrench, Paolo Gerbaudo, Sharon Gewirtz, Alex Loftus, David Treece

With thanks to the King’s Together Fund; and to the following departments at King’s College London: French; Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies; Geography; Digital Humanities; Film Studies; and the School of Education, Communication, and Society

With thanks to the King’s Together Fund; and to the following departments at King’s College London: French; Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies; Geography; Digital Humanities; Film Studies; and the School of Education, Communication, and Society

We are pleased to collaborate with Third World Newsreel (New York) on the screening of Newsreel films; and with the German Screen Studies Network (London) on the screening of films by Helke Sander

Project status: Completed

Principal Investigator

  • SheilMark

    Mark Shiel

    Professor of Film, Media, and Urban Studies

Investigators

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