“The Summer of Love”: A One-Day Countercultural Event in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Summer of 1967
Queen’s University Belfast, 28 July 2017

The Summer of Love was not simply an American phenomenon but an occurrence with international and intercultural influence and significant social and political effects, transforming the ways in which the counterculture, intergenerational relationships, class, gender, and race are understood. Thousands of young people ventured to the Bay Area, particularly the Haight-Ashbury district. The media’s overage of the influx of students, hippies, and others considered part of the “counterculture” drew national and international attention. 

This event will consist of a strong arts and entertainment component. The interdisciplinary focus of the newly formed School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s will be stressed as collaborative research projects in writing, poetry, film, and a number of other disciplines will highlight cooperative learning and community engagement. Local artists from Belfast will display their original works, a screening of countercultural films at Queen’s Film Theatre will take place, and a special evening musical performance will conclude the day’s events. 

The keynote speaker will be Dr Christopher Gair, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Associate Director of the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Dr Gair is the author of The American Counterculture (Edinburgh UP, 2007), The Beat Generation (Oneworld, 2008), and is the editor of Beyond Boundaries: C. L. R. James and Postnational Studies (Pluto, 2006). 

20-minute presentations—in areas such as Art, Film, Music, Psychology, History, Political Science, and Sociology—on themes associated with the late 1960s, are expected and appreciated. Papers can address the effects/outcomes of the counterculture of the 1960s. Presentations from postgraduate students are especially welcome.

Paper proposals should include a title, a 300-word abstract, your institution affiliation, contact information, and a 100-word biography. Topics may include:

- Vietnam and the student protests; the New Left; Students for a Democratic Society; Hippies, Yippies, and Diggers

- Timothy Leary; psychedelia and drug culture

- Deviance; intergenerational conflict; youth alienation; Free love and the sexual revolution

- Freaks, bikers, communes, cults, and other marginal groups

- San Francisco rock, folk music, protest songs, and experimental music; Bob Dylan; the Beatles (particularly Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band); Jimi Hendrix; the Grateful Dead; music festivals

- Independent and cult films; the Hollywood Renaissance

- Civil disobedience, riots and race relations; the Black Panthers; the feminist movement 

- Eastern religion; the New Age movement; mysticism

Please send your proposal to [log in to unmask]
The deadline for proposals is March 1, 2017. Results will be announced by March 20, 2017. 

Conference booking will open in April. The event will take place in the Peter Froggatt Center at the University of Belfast. A vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunch will be served.