Join us for the symposium “The Power of the Powerless: A 1968 Retrospective.” 

This event brings together scholars from multiple disciplines and perspectives on the 50th anniversary of the important global events of 1968. The one-day symposium is book-ended by keynote talks by Dr. David Danaher and Dr. Julian Bourg (see below). In conjunction with the symposium three hosted film screenings will be held at 7:00pm at the Loft Cinema in Tucson on November 2: Daisies (Czechoslovakia, 1966), November 6: In the Intense Now (Brazil, 2017), and November 7: Something in the Air (France, 2012). All events are free and open to the public. 

For a complete list of presentations, see attached symposium schedule. 

This event is made possible thanks to the University of Arizona’s College of Humanities, the Dept. of French & Italian, and the Dept. of Russian & Slavic Studies.

Keynote speakers:

Dr. David Danaher, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Author of Reading Vaclav Havel (University of Toronto Press, 2015). Dr. David Danaher's research interests include pedagogy, literature, and linguistics with reference to both Russian and Czech. His most recent book, Reading Vaclav Havel, examines the contemporary relevance of the Czech playwright, dissident, and “non-political” politician Václav Havel, who is considered one of the most influential intellectuals of our time. Among his current research projects is a book on the lessons to be drawn from the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe.

Dr. Julian Bourg, Boston College

Author of From Revolution to Ethics (McGill-Queen’s Press, 2007). Dr. Julian Bourg’s interests include 19th- and 20th-century European intellectual history, the history of terrorism, modernism and post-modernism, and biopower. His first book, From Revolution to Ethics, examined the revival of the theme of ethics among French intellectuals in the wake of the student and worker revolts of May 1968. Among his current research projects is a book on the history of the relationship between terror and democracy since the eighteenth century.