6 December 2004

Back to the 60s

Photo opportunity 12.50pm, Tuesday 7 December, Tower Extension Lecture Theatre, Tower Building, University of Dundee.

160 senior school pupils will be taken on a psychedelic journey back to the 1960s tomorrow at the University of Dundee Christmas lecture when 1960s history experts will be giving them the lowdown on the era of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Higher history pupils from Craigie High School, Arbroath High, Dundee High School, Harris Academy, Morgan Academy, Brechin High, Glenwood High School and Perth Grammar will let three of the universities distinguished historians treat them to a historical overview of the 1960s.

Teachers will be pitted against pupils in their knowledge of the '60s key figures and facts in a quiz with prizes including compilation CDs and Doctor Who DVDs. Professor Calum Brown will introduce the sixteen year olds to Bob Dylan's The Times, they are a- changing to give them a taste of flower power.

Professor Jim Tomlinson explains: "I will be suggesting to the pupils that the '60s wasn't all 'sex, drugs and rock and roll'. Rather, it was the decade of modernization in the economy - the 'white heat of technology'; in foreign policy the end of 'East of Suez' and the applications to Europe in urban design. Governments also wanted to modernise the law-hence reforms in divorce and homosexuality which link to the theme of 'permissiveness' and back to sex drugs and rock and roll.

Dr Zoe Colley will address the American experience during the 1960s looking at the protest movements - particularly the civil rights and antiwar movements--that emerged during the decade, and the impact of this upon American life. She will say that the decade was a time of great social upheaval, when many Americans battled over the nature of American democracy and explain that it was also one of the most violent decades in recent history, with assassinations, police brutality, racial division and war dominating domestic life.

Professor Calum Brown, one of the University's newest professors, is an expert on the history of the 1960s. He will look at the cultural impact of the 1960s, exploring the changes in sexuality, sexual behaviour, morality, media and perceptions of authority. He will be argue that the 1960s represented a major cultural revolution in British, European and American life.

The lecture entitled "The 1960s - was it all sex, drugs and rock 'n roll?" will take place in the University's Tower Extension Lecture Theatre.

By Jenny Marra, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk