The ’60s Revisited; History Teachers Conference Tackles Era of Hope, Rage and Change

October 25, 2004 Archives

Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3571

ORONO — The University of Maine History Department’s 2004 conference for Maine middle and high school teachers will tackle the exciting, tumultuous times of the 1960s on Oct. 29 at the Buchanan Alumni House.

The day-long event, titled “The 1960’s: A Decade of Hope, Rage, & Change,” will feature talks and panel discussions on wide variety of aspects of one of the most influential periods in the lives of today’s baby-boomers and the generations that followed.

The event, now in its 10th year, draws approximately 100 teachers to the Orono campus each year and serves as a forum for discussing and disseminating recent scholarship and ways of incorporating aspects of the new material into Maine’s middle and high school curricula.

It also is an excellent opportunity to strengthen ties between secondary schools and university educators, says Alexander Grab, a UMaine history professor. The conferences highlight topics related to presenting history in the classroom. Each year, the history department picks a different topic.

“We have a wonderful selection of topics and panels this year arranged around the theme of the conference,” Grab says.

Many people who experienced life in the ’60s may not remember the period vividly. Others, many of whom are young teachers today, may have only heard or read about the philosophies and politics of the ’60s that engulfed the western world.

“Especially if they are history or social studies teachers,” Grab says, this year’s conference “adds to their knowledge and understanding.”

Speakers include UMaine faculty members who are experts in their fields, and can speak to the 1960s period with perspective and insight about issues including feminism, black power, racial equality, imperialism and the Vietnam War.

Both keynote speaker Prof. Maurice Isserman of Hamilton College in upstate New York and Richard Judd, a UMaine history professor, are national authorities on the 1960s.

“I think it will be a great program, even if you are not a teacher,” Grab says. “it will be great for just listening.”

Last year the program theme was moral problems in history.

The 2004 conference begins with coffee and registration at 8:30 a.m., opening remarks at 9 a.m., and concludes at 3 p.m. The cost of the conference is $25, which includes morning coffee, tea and pastries and a buffet luncheon.

Isserman’s talk, “Old Glory on Mt. Everest and Other Ironic Tales from the Sixties,” begins at 9:15 a.m.

For a small fee, students attending the conference can receive 0.6 CEU credits. Participants with disabilities requiring accommodation should contact Grab at 581-1928 or the University of Maine History Department at 581-1908 as soon as possible to make arrangements.

The schedule is as follows:

  • 8:30-9 a.m., Registration and coffee

  • 9-~9:15 a.m., Introduction and greetings

  • 9:15-10:30 a.m., Keynote address: Prof. Maurice Isserman, Hamilton College, “Old Glory on Mt. Everest and Other Ironic Tales from the Sixties”

  • 10:30-10:45a.m., Coffee Break

Panels:

  • 1:45-12:15 p.m.

  • 1. Culture and Campuses

  • Prof. Nathan Godfried, UMaine History Department: “Changing Visions of Imperial America: Mass Culture of the 1960’s

  • Prof. Richard Judd, UMaine History Department: “The Environmental Movement in the 1960s”

  •  Prof. Burt Hatlen, UMaine English Department: “The Vietnam War and Campus Radicalism: The University of Maine in the 1960’s”

2. Teaching the 1960’s in Maine High Schools

  • Katheryn King, Hampden Academy

  • James Smith, Bangor High School

  • Marc Halstead, Northfield High School, Montpelier, Vt.,

  • Joel Hills, Hampden Academy

  • Lunch: 12:15-1:15

Panels

  • 1:15-2:45

1. Women and Minorities

  • Prof. Mazie Hough, UMaine Women in the Curriculum: “Beyond Bra Burning — A Historical Perspective of the Women’s Liberation Movement”

  • Prof. Maureen Smith, UMaine director of Native American Studies and History: “The 1960’s in Maine’s Indian Country: The Affirmation of Ancestral                             Activism”

  • Prof. Marli Weiner, UMaine History Department: “Struggle for Racial Equality in the 1960’s: The Civil Rights Movement”

2. US Foreign Policy, Vietnam and Canada

  • Prof. Elizabeth McKillen, UMaine History Department: “The US in Vietnam: Aberration or Culmination?”

  • Prof. Ngo Vinh Long, UMaine History Department: “The Vietnamese Revolution and US Counter Insurgency”

  • Prof. Scott See, UMaine History Department: “The Peaceable Kingdom? Canada in the 1960s”

Buchanan Alumni House is located at 160 College Avenue, next to Lengyel Gym.