WORKSHOP

GERMANY'S 1968:
A Cultural Revolution?

Workshop Overview

April 11-12, 2008

Location: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Institute for the Arts & Humanities, Hyde Hall

Four decades later, the personal memories of Germany's student movement have faded from view and media and political myth making have shaped the popular understanding of these student revolts from the late sixties. Although the actual events continue to shape the consciousness of the revolts' veterans, the brief epoch's iconic status in the public sphere has ballooned and become distorted. The result of amnesia and over-representation, "sixty-eight" has assumed today contradictory meanings: either the onset of disorder or overdue liberalization. This workshop undertakes a critical reappraisal of the causes, the course and consequences of the events and ideas commonly associated with the symbolic date of 1968 in the two Germanies. Drawing on the work of cultural scholars, political scientists and historians, it will examine the motives that fueled this generational rebellion. It will analyze new forms of political confrontation which activists developed. And it will explore the impact of shifts in culture that propelled and grew out of these protests.

[program cover pdf]
[program pdf]

[bios and abstracts pdf]

[registration pdf]

[accommodations]