(1968)
A Symposium
April 7-9, 2006
Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College

One word on everyone=92s lips in May =9268 was =93contestation.=94 It =20=

expresses a fundamental version of freedom: not freedom to change or =20
to succeed, but freedom to revolt, to call things into question.
-Julia Kristeva

This symposium represents an effort to look at a broad and dramatic =20
historical moment with an eye towards the radical sense of =20
possibility and inquiry that it contained. This event will bring =20
together a dynamic range of scholars and media-makers whose work =20
directly engages the period=92s international breadth of activism and =20=

critique =96 from political protest and social change to radical =20
incursions in philosophical, mass-cultural and avant-garde art =20
practices.

While this is certainly not an attempt to conduct a narrow exercise =20
in hermeneutics, we have chosen the year, and the time immediately =20
surrounding it, because of the obvious and evocative ways in which it =20=

encapsulates a set of events, expressions and possibilities: a =20
bracketed series of very public and dramatic contestations =96 to use =20=

Kristeva=92s term =96 that cut across a remarkable swath of cultures, =20=

continents, social contexts and discourses.

In the current historical moment, when the idealist notions of =20
individual and group agency, radical possibility and mass common =20
cause often seem na=EFve or impossibly distant, we believe that it=92s =20=

important to look energetically and critically at a moment when the =20
rhetorics of change and agency, on so many levels, seemed widely potent.

In looking at a time when the progressive work of intellectuals, =20
cultural producers, political, labor and social activists frequently =20
were entwined and mutually supporting, we feel it important to bring =20
into direct conversation engaged critics and practitioners from a =20
broad range of disciplines and perspectives. Thus, the structure of =20
this symposium deliberately rejects medium and subject-specificity in =20=

an effort to re-connect the separations that have been reinforced by =20
the discrete =91professionalization=92 and cultural marginalization of =20=

intellectual, cultural and political work.

We invite proposals for papers, panels, presentations and =20
performances from scholars, artists and activists. Please email a =20
one-page abstract or overview and a c.v. to ccrane_at_ithaca.edu and =20
nmuellner_at_ithaca.edu. Review of proposals will begin December 15th, =20
2005. Please direct any questions to Cathy Crane or Nick Muellner, =20
Department of Cinema & Photography, Park School of Communications, =20
Ithaca College.

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Received on Sun Nov 27 2005 - 16:43:28 EST