2016 HOTCUS Winter Symposium: “Ordinary People”: Grassroots Organizing and Protest Movements in Twentieth Century America

University of Dundee, 13 February 2016

The 2016 HOTCUS winter symposium will focus upon the rich history of social and political activism in twentieth century America and the importance of “ordinary people” in bringing about change. The plenary lecture will be delivered by Dr. Kate Dossett of the University of Leeds.

The PROGRAMME is available below, or as a word document here.

For details about TRAVEL and ACCOMMODATION, please click here.

To REGISTER for the event, please click here.

Inquires about the event should be sent to Zoe Colley (z.a.colley@dundee.ac.uk).

Programme: 

9.00-9.15: Registration

Dalhousie 2S17

9.15-10.15: Plenary Lecture, Dalhousie 2S17

Chair: Zoe Colley

Dr. Kate Dossett, University of Leeds, “The Radical Roots of Respectability: Black Women’s Activism and the Long Freedom Struggle.”

10.15-10.45: Coffee break

10.45-12.00 Communities Collaborating for Change: Protest and Rights in the Urban Environment, Dalhousie 2S17

Chair:

Say Burgin, University of Leeds, “In the Shadow of the Detroit Rebellion: The New Bethel ‘Incident’ and Interracial Opportunities in the Post-Rebellion Years.”

Timo Schrader, University of Nottingham, “Puerto Rican Gangs, Community Organizations, and the Right to the City: Lessons from the Lower East Side, 1960s-1970s.”

Dario Fazzi, Roosevelt Study Center, Netherlands, “Awoken from a Nightmare: The (Un)coordinated Public Response to the Three Mile Island Accident.”

12.05-12.55: GI’s, Anti-War Protest, and the Vietnam War, Dalhousie 2S17

Chair: Nick Witham

Fabian Hilfrich, Edinburgh University, “Opportunity or Danger? Merging Social and Anti-War Movements in the Vietnam War.”

Lauren Mottle, University of Leeds, “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee: Cultivating the GI Movement in the Vietnam Era.”

12.55-1.45: Lunch

Dalhousie 2S16

1.45-3.00: Rights-Based Organizations at the Grassroots, Dalhousie 2S17

Chair: Emma Long

Erin Lux, Strathclyde University, “Victims’ Rights or Retribution? The Role of the Victims’ Rights Movement in American Justice.”

Sabina Peck, Leeds University, “Rethinking Success and Failure in the Feminist Second Wave: The Case of the Abortion Rights Action Week.”

Alfred Cardone, King’s College, London, “The Libertarian Festival: People Power for the Twenty-First century.”

3.00-3.30: Coffee break, Dalhousie 2S17

3.30-4.45 Intersecting Struggles for Social Justice at the Local, National, and Transnational Levels, Dalhousie 2S17

Chair: Zoe Colley

Gyorgy “George” Toth, Stirling University, “Getting Your German, Getting Your Indian: Interpersonal Relations and Organizing in the Transatlantic Alliance for American Indian Sovereignty in the Late Cold War.”

Emma Folwell, Newman University, “Black Activism, White Resistance, and the Quest for Economic Opportunity in Mississippi.”

Katherine Ballantyne, University of Cambridge, “Mountaintop Radicals: Highlander Folk School and the Emergence of Tennessee Student Activism.”