Revolution and Reaction: The Sixties in the US

SWS: 2

ECTS: 6

Einstufungsergebnis: 70-100

This course will be conducted in a unique international-tandem format, which means that students will interact with a group of learners in the United States in order to improve their language and intercultural skills.  Dr. Steven Foulke of Ottawa University will be parallel-teaching the course on his campus. Students will follow lectures and participate in discourse with their counterparts abroad using free Internet teleconferencing software. In addition, students will be paired (or grouped) with their American counterparts for small group discussions and project work, with use of a shared media blackboard. This innovative course concept was awarded the Lehre@Philipps prize for 2018.

These days a great rift runs through the political landscape of the U.S. We hope to put this into a historical context by examining a similar period of unrest half a century ago. The 1960s was a time of upheaval in America. The teenagers and young adults of the Baby Boom were questioning the values of their parents’ generation. Blacks were challenging Jim Crow. A feminist manifesto helped desperate housewives to diagnose their malaise, and Women’s Liberation was born. The latter was aided (or subverted?) by a revolution in birth control, the Pill, which was also the key that opened the door to free love. Aside from the arms race (which was preceding apace), America was engaged in a space race with Russia, leading Kennedy to commit the nation to grabbing the ultimate prize: an American on the moon before the decade’s end. President Johnson’s War on Poverty lost vital budgeting to the escalating war in Vietnam and ended with a whimper. There was a TV in every home and, for the first time, Americans were served footage of U.S. troops in battle along with their suppers. Hippies celebrated the Summer of Love in San Francisco in ‘67, a police riot was instigated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, three days of peace and music was celebrated near Woodstock, New York in 1969, and the decade ended with a Nixon presidency.

In the course, we will be looking at selections from works of literature and film to better understand developments in politics (The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer and The Selling of the President), civil rights (“The Letter from the Birmingham Jail” and The Autobiography of Malcolm X), feminism (The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan), the war in Vietnam (The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam and Apocalypse Now), the space race (The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe and Hidden Figures), and the counterculture (Woodstock and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test).

As the course is directed at students with C-level English skills, the emphasis will be on maintaining and refining existing language skills, as opposed to acquiring new skills. However, intensive interaction with American students in project work and classroom discussions, as well as exposure to a wide range of pop media in American English, will provide ample opportunity to:

• improve pronunciation, intonation and fluency

• expand vocabulary and American idioms

• become more proficient in written and oral expression

• become more aware of cultural differences and similarities

• take an active part in conversations and work groups with native speakers

• critically analyze American popular culture in various media (literature, music, film)

To receive a certificate, students are expected to make weekly contributions to a written forum, to participate in a group project with their American counterparts, and to submit a term paper.

NOTE: Some coursework will be videotaped for university purposes; students will be required to sign the necessary consent form.