HIS2300 : 1968: A Global Moment?
- Offered for Year: 2026/27
- Available to incoming Study Abroad and Exchange students
- Module Leader(s): Professor Matt Perry
- Lecturer: Dr Felix Schulz, Dr Katalin Straner
- Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Pre-requisite
Modules you must have done previously to study this module
Pre Requisite Comment
N/A
Co-Requisite
Modules you need to take at the same time
Co Requisite Comment
N/A
Aims
In 1968, in various parts of the globe, seemingly stable governments and regimes were shaken by a wave of protest movements that ostensibly shared more than mere timing. It was a year of seismic social and political change globally. From the anti-Vietnam war and civil rights movements in the United States, student protests and revolutions across Europe and the ‘Third World’, the rise of the New Left, and the emergence of second-wave feminism, the ‘1968 moment’ is central to understanding the second half of the twentieth century. This module will highlight the similarities and differences in the 1968 experience across three case studies that may include France, Germany, United States, East-Central Europe and Northern Ireland. It will take a thematic approach, intersecting macro- and micro-level analysis and case studies. It will encourage students to consider the ‘1968 years’ as a significant moment between postwar austerity and the Thatcher-Reagan years, and examine whether there is a common 1968 experience or conflicting ideals. By considering the trajectories of activists across the three case studies, including transnational links between them, the module will develop students’ skills in comparative history and their awareness of memory as a historical source
Outline Of Syllabus
This syllabus may be subject to variation:
Introduction
1. Global 68 an introductory lecture
Race and ethnicity in the three case studies
2. Immigrant workers and student internationalism in the May Events
3. Race in West Germany: ‘guest workers’ and postwar German identity
4. Nation, ethnicity, and race in East Central Europe (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland) Class in the three case studies
5. The May-June strike movement: 10 million workers against 10 years of Gaullism
6. Intellectuals, dissidents, and the working class: 1968 in State Socialist East Central Europe
7. West German workers during the Economic Miracle Gender in the three case studies
8. May 68, sexual freedom and the origins of French women’s and gay liberation movements
9. Women and 1968 in East Central Europe
10. Gender and the 1968 years in West Germany
Conclusion
11. Did 68 change the world?
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | film viewing and reflection, (does not count towards contact hours) |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 64 | 1:00 | 64:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | weekly interactive lecture incorporating document work |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 66 | 1:00 | 66:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 3 | 1:00 | 3:00 | Seminars for each of the case studies |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 3 | 2:00 | 6:00 | A guide to newspapers as a historical source. A guide to comparative history as an approach. Historical methods for the assessments. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 2 | 1:00 | 2:00 | Documentary, module content and assessment guidance. Necessary scaffolding for the assessment. |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 35 | 1:00 | 35:00 | N/A |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
WORKSHOPS encourage independent study and promote improvements in oral presentation, interpersonal communication, problem-solving skills, research skills and adaptability.
LECTURES enable students to gain a wider sense of historical argument and debate and how such debates operate, which also allows them to develop comparisons between different historiographical debates.
SURGERY TIME: Staff will make themselves available in their offices for four hours over the course of the module to see students individually on issues concerning them, although we expect this will focus on preparation for assessments.
Small group teaching allow in-depth discussion of each of the national case studies.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written exercise | 2 | M | 50 | Comparative essay 1000-word based on a primary source: The Courier in 1968 Feed-forward. |
| Essay | 2 | A | 50 | 2000 words (incl footnotes but not bibliography) |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining the student’s progress and is feed-forward. Summative assessment tests knowledge outcomes and develops skills in research and reading.
Summative assessment
Written exercise: a global and transnational source
• students write an analysis of the Global 68 critically using The Courier (the Newcastle University Students' Union newspaper) as source material.
Essay: ‘Connected themes’ essay: a comparative essay structured around the themes and documents of the course, due in the assessment period.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- HIS2300's Timetable