Student Springs: from the 1962 crisis to the 25th of April | Colloquium and exhibition mark 60 years of student protest against Estado Novo

Student Springs: from the 1962 crisis to the 25th of April

Colloquium and exhibition mark 60 years of student protest against Estado Novo

On March 24th, the date on which the democratic regime will complete 17,500 days - by the way, one more than the days lived in dictatorship -, Student Day is also marked, and this will be the major theme highlighted in the commemorations, given that it coincides with the 60th anniversary of the academic crisis that shook the regime in 1962.

The date will be marked with the Colloquium Primaveras Estudantis: from the 1962 crisis to the 25th of April, at the Rectory of Aula Magna, in Lisbon, from 9:30 am. Some of the main protagonists of academic crises will replay memories, in the first person, and join in the traditional lunch in the Cantina of the University of Lisbon.

The initiative includes interventions by the President of the Republic and the President of the Assembly of the Republic, as well as the rector of the University of Lisbon and the executive commissioner of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the 25th of April. This is the first initiative of the official program of commemorations promoted by the Government and Presidency of the Republic.

The documentary “Sampaio, Caetano e Salazar: o confrontation de 1962”, directed by journalist Jacinto Godinho and produced by RTP, will also be premiered.

The program also includes the panels “The memory of academic crises in the first person” and “Student associative movements and the construction of democracy”, the latter with the participation of Álvaro Garrido, Director of FEUC.

In the late afternoon, an exhibition alluding to the same theme will be inaugurated at the Museum of Natural History, which from the end of the summer onwards will be exhibited in Coimbra, another city that was the epicenter of the 1962 student protest. Álvaro Garrido, director of FEUC , is the scientific commissioner of the exhibition "Student Springs. From the 1962 Crisis to the 25th of April"

The exhibition “Student Springs: from the 1962 crisis to the 25th of April” aims to show the importance of the student movement for Portuguese democracy. Original films kept in public and private archives, public radio sounds, censored photographs that could never be printed in newspapers, clandestinely written communications, posters and many other objects of historical value, collected in public and personal collections, will be on display on the monitors, listening points and showcases.

This multimedia trip also includes a mural honoring the more than 900 students imprisoned during the dictatorship.

Coordinated by Álvaro Garrido, professor of History at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and author of reference works on the economic and social history of the 20th century, a team of three historians (Ana Sofia Ferreira, Francisco Henriques and Gil Gonçalves) and a journalist (Paulo Pena) produced, with museographic design and production by António Viana, a detailed chronology of the events of those “Student Springs” that shook the dictatorship and civically formed several generations.

The exhibition will be on view at the National Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Lisbon, until August 28, during which the educational services will organize guided tours, heading to Coimbra in the last quarter of the year.

https://www.ulisboa.pt/evento/coloquio-primaveras-estudantis-da-crise-de-1962-ao-25-de-abril