01/23/2009
Doris Wilkinson Awarded Mini-Grant for Project Focused on 1968
Doris Wilkinson, Professor in the Department of Sociology, has been awarded a mini-grant from the Kentucky Humanities Council for a unique pilot project titled "1968: A Dramatic Moment in U.S. Political History and Culture." Phase I of her multi-faceted interdisciplinary project will include research, a panel of distinguished scholars in the humanities and social sciences, and a cultural history exhibit.
The project will begin February 16th with a panel of distinguished scholars. The panelists – outstanding social science and humanities faculty at the University of Kentucky – will present reflections on the dramatic events that unfolded in 1968 – 40 years ago. Activities associated with the timely public humanities project will begin February 16th with the panel and an exhibit. The culture history exhibit will include photographs, narratives and posters documenting events that unfolded on university campuses and elsewhere in the country.
Wilkinson states that nineteen-sixty eight represented a dynamic finale to the generation of the 1960s when social change was a constant feature of the society. In 1968 alone, movements swept throughut the South and across U.S. college campuses with the Anti-War and Civil Rights activities framing their core. Among the many social movements that found their "home" in university environments, several themes dominated: peace, civil rights, justice, women's liberation. The "moment" was as some have said "the best of times and the worst of times." Wilkinson feels that 1968 iimprinted a permanent mark on the political history and social culture of the United States. "In some ways," she notes, "it may have set the stage for the major transition in the composition of the current political order."
"1968" takes the visitor on a journey to one aspect of the past in American history. Through photographs, newspapers, historical documents, and narratives from the voices of "representatives of the 1960s era beginning with the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina," Wilkinson has prepared a creative and informative exhibit. A prominent educator and recipient of the "Great Teacher Award", Wilkinson feels that her project represents an extension of the teaching role beyond the boundaries of the classroom. She said that she has been planning and implementing programs for at least two decades, especially as President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (1987-1988) and President of the Eastern Sociological Society (1993-1994).
The program on February 16th opens with a social history exhibit and a panel of distinguished scholars in the arts, social sciences, and humanities: Professors Garry Bibbs (Art), Susan Bordo (English and Gender & Women's Studies), Stanley Brunn (Geography), Patricia Cooper (History and Gender & Women's Studies), Ronald Eller (History), and Ernest Yanarella (Political Science). For further information contact: Dr. Doris Wilkinson (dwilkin@email.uky.edu) or at 257-4415 or 257-6896.
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Photo Credit: University of Kentucky Archives