We are currently soliciting additional participants for a proposed roundtable on the 1960s at the PCA/ACA National Conference scheduled in Washington DC for March 27-30, 2013. The panel abstract is as follows:

Historiographically, the long 1960s are characterized by a globally-articulated set of critiques against Cold War liberalism and consensus democracy, corporate media, and traditional sites of authority and governance nebulously defined as the "Establishment." During this period, there was a significant and globally interconnected push for change, focused on political apparatuses and social institutions that frequently denied or curtailed basic civil liberties. Accompanying these efforts were numerous cultural changes that fundamentally reshaped social norms regarding race, class, gender and sexual orientation. In response, much of the mainstream media throughout the 1960s offered various tropes as well as “ideal types” to explain away these widespread transformations. From the stoner to the rebel, the cop and the hippie, the student and the parent, and many more, these caricatures have come to shape mainstream investigations of the period. While mainstream media and political elites failed to curtail significant political change during the 60s, these cultural gatekeepers of the past have, arguably, won the war for the memory of the age, normalizing these sensationalized tropes in popular discourse as well as the historiography. As a consequence, in many contemporary films, literature, television programs, print media and histories that focus on the 60s, the personal is no longer political, it is cultural, recasting the 60s as a decade when cultural change rather than political advocacy characterized, if not dominated, the hearts and minds of activists. Covering an array of media forms, nation-state perspectives, and global discourse from the 60s, this roundtable explores the continuities and conflicts associated with the afterlives of 60s media. Additionally, panelists will discuss the processes in which the tropes and “ideal types” of 60s media are repackaged in contemporary discourse. Finally, participants will consider the consequences of these retellings of the 1960s on global politics and societies today.

Interested participants may send a 150 word abstract addressing a specific topic they would address within the context of the abstract to devan.bissonette@nau.edu no later than November 24th, 2012. Decisions will be made shortly thereafter and participants contacted via email.