An international conference provides a humanistic view on the events of May 1968 and its consequences
From Wednesday 17 to Friday 19, this January, speakers from many academic centers in Europe (Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Russia) and North America (USA and Mexico) will think, from a humanistic perspective, on the French May of 68, its counterpart in the United States and the repercussions it had internationally. “What was 1968? A reading after 50 years” is the title of the international conference that will gather these experts and which has been organized by the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià (AUSP) and the University of Barcelona (UB) in collaboration with the Pontificial Committee for Historical Sciences (PCSS) of the Vatican.
These sessions, to be held in the Aula Magna in AUSP and the Paranimph of the University, will open on Wednesday 17, at 11 a.m. in the Paranimph of the UB, with an event chaired by the rector Joan Elias and which will have the participation of the president of the Ponticial Committee for Historical Sciences, Bernard Ardura; the rector of AUSP, Armand Puig, and the lecturer Ugo Baldini, from the University of Padova, who will give the opening conference.
From Wednesday 17 to Friday 19, this January, speakers from many academic centers in Europe (Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Russia) and North America (USA and Mexico) will think, from a humanistic perspective, on the French May of 68, its counterpart in the United States and the repercussions it had internationally. “What was 1968? A reading after 50 years” is the title of the international conference that will gather these experts and which has been organized by the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià (AUSP) and the University of Barcelona (UB) in collaboration with the Pontificial Committee for Historical Sciences (PCSS) of the Vatican.
These sessions, to be held in the Aula Magna in AUSP and the Paranimph of the University, will open on Wednesday 17, at 11 a.m. in the Paranimph of the UB, with an event chaired by the rector Joan Elias and which will have the participation of the president of the Ponticial Committee for Historical Sciences, Bernard Ardura; the rector of AUSP, Armand Puig, and the lecturer Ugo Baldini, from the University of Padova, who will give the opening conference.
These sessions will be divided into three areas. The first one will be dedicated to the historical analysis of events, under geographical areas: Paris, Frankfurt-Berlin, the violent repression of the army in Mexico and Barcelona, and the shock it meant to Moscow. The second one will study some ideas that joined this revolution in 1968: the heterodox Marxism, Gramciʼs Marxism, Freud and Nietzsche with their followers, and feminist movements. And the third area will consist on the description of the most important influences in the areas of church, theology, politics, education, arts and literature.
“This revolution means the end of a way of understanding life in a way that was not seen before”, says Josep Ignasi Saranyana, lecturer from the University of Navarra and member of PCSS. “It is clear that May 1968 is written in capital letters in the revolutionary cycle of modern times. It was not a violent revolution like the French or the Russian ones, but it has been the only one carried out by the bourgeoisie in the first world”, says Saranyana about events that were led by young university students. “Some experts on historical analysis believe this revolution is deeper than the previous ones, since it ends with a way of understanding life that was not seen before”, continues the lecturer.
The events of 1968 join the revolutionary cycle of modern times. The first one was the French Revolution in 1789, followed by the revolutions ub 1830, 1848 and 1870, until the French Revolution in 1917. From 1789 to 1968, riots, despite being inspired by intellectuals, caused popular commotions, which were violent, with the complicity of lower military ranks. The events of the 68 were different: they affected the university world and the bourgeoisie, with bare proletarian participation. It was stronger than previous riots -perhaps excluding the French Revolution in 1789- because it meant a change in the way of understanding life, never seen before since the former regime.
The speakers of this conference will not only analyse the philosophical and theological influences that grew after 1968, but will also set the consequences of this revolution in the new life habits and uses, which came up over the last decades and are now being detected and marked by historiography, sociology and other sciences.
Among the speakers of this international meeting stand out Ugo Baldini, Josep Ramoneda, Christian Sorrel, Jordi Porta, Karl-Siegbert Rehbgerg, Renate Marsiske, Evgenia Tokareva, Philippe Chenaux, Francesc Torralba, Ramon Alcoberro, Martín F. Echavarría, Luis Romera, Francisca Pérez Madrid, Agostino Giovagnoli, Anna Pagès Santacana, Daniel Giralt-Miracle, Javier de Navascués, Peio Sánchez, Gianni La Bella and Josep Ignasi Saranyana.