1968 Paris

Instructor Bruno Bosteels, Dean of Humanities and Jesse and George Siegel Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Taught in English.

"1968" remains a watershed year in the history of worldwide struggles for liberation and emancipation. For many the last gasp of the revolutionary era, for others the beginning of a new regime of flexible control. The hypothesis for this seminar holds that "1968" matters for a thinking of the event in two essential ways: not only may we ask what happened but we also should ask how we can talk of the happening of an event in the first place. Alternating theoretical and fictional, historical and artistic, filmic and political materials, students will be expected to develop an original take on one aspect of the paradigm shift that affects the thinking of the events of “1968” during that exceptional month of May in Paris, while keeping a close eye on the national and international contexts behind the global sixties.

This summer edition of the course will meet three times per week for two hours each, plus a weekly showing and discussion of a movie related to May 1968 in France and around the globe. In addition, the class will include day trips with a guided tour to the Quartier Latin in relation to May ’68 as well as the National Archives. To be confirmed are visits by contemporary theorists and philosophers such as Jacques Rancière or Alain Badiou, for whom May 1968 always was and remains a major touchstone event for their view of emancipatory politics.

To enroll in this course, you must apply to the Columbia Summer in Paris program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).  Global Learning Scholarships available.  Tuition charges apply. 

Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Session Terms. Visit the UGE website for the start and end dates for the Columbia in Summer in Paris program. 

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