The three of us had recently learned about the 1968 Antiuniversity of East London through a Hackney Museum research project and wanted to explore the potential relevance of the historical movement to the current state of higher education.
In 1968 young people across the world protested against a stagnant and violent political system and a conservative education system which reproduced out-of-date knowledge with no critical reflection, ignoring the real concerns of young people. From the Black Panthers and the Anti Vietnam War movement in the US to students and workers occupations in France, from Mexico to Prague, a generation was fighting against racism, sexism, colonialism and state violence. A new world order called for a new academic order.
Very much a product of its time, the original Antiuniversity was set up in February ‘68 in Shoreditch, then a working class neighbourhood and now a fully gentrified part of London. It was led by American academic Joseph Berke who, Inspired by the Dialectics of Liberation conference held the previous year at the Roundhouse in Camden, gathered a group of academics, writers and artists to establish a new type of institution.