1968/2018: Cities on the Edge
The Princeton-Mellon Initiative and the Humanities Council invite proposals for conferences, symposia, speakers, and course enhancements related to the 50th anniversaries of the tumultuous events of 1968.
For cities such as Paris, Mexico City, Prague, Detroit, and Chicago, the year 1968 conjures turbulent images, scenes and narratives. Across the United States, cities responded to and refracted infamous and traumatic events, including the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Sen. Robert Kennedy, and the violent Democratic Convention in Chicago. Campus protests in Berlin, Tokyo, and New York altered the future course of higher education and national politics, while upheavals in Trenton and Washington, D.C. shaped the future of our local region and federal urban policy. Other cultural artifacts in addition to policy and politics–from architecture, design, literature, film, and journalism—reflect and embody fundamental shifts rooted in urban transformation.
We welcome proposals to foster and enhance a campus-wide discussion related to these 50th anniversaries, including those that explore poetry, fiction, music, the visual arts, design, and media as sites for protest and outrage, as well as for utopian imaginings of peace and liberation.
The Princeton-Mellon Initiative and Humanities Council will provide funding and logistical support for initiatives to take place in the spring (preferably) and fall of 2018.
The deadline for proposals is January 12. Initial inquiries are strongly encouraged by mid-December. Please send proposals or questions to Aaron Shkuda (ashkuda@princeton.edu) or Kathleen Crown (kcrown@princeton.edu).
