Cold Warnings: Armageddon in the National Curriculum Kevin Booth and Keith McDonald
Event details
Cold Warnings is an Arts Council England funded, York St John University project that explores the impact of including the Cold War in the new GSCE Curriculum introduced in 1986.
Although the topic of the Cold War featured in the UK school system before the roll-out of the GCSE, it was more explicitly included across a range of subjects in the changing curriculum. Books such as Z for Zachariah were chosen for the English Literature syllabus and the deeply disturbing 1984 film Threads was often screened in schools, and many have a lasting memory of seeing this traumatic docudrama in the classroom.
The film Cold Warnings is based around interviews with those who studied the Cold War at the time and includes reflections from GCSE students today, some of whom see similarities to contemporary global conflicts and traumas. The result is a deeply poignant and thought-provoking artwork drawing on memory and reflection.
Join Keith McDonald of York St John University and Kevin Booth of English Heritage for a special screening deep in the York Cold War Bunker, with a tour of the site and Q&A.
If you require the use of a wheelchair please email site manager Julie Brookes Julie.Brookes@english-
Find out more about the York Cold War Bunker.
About the speakers
Kevin Booth is an archaeologist and the Senior Collections Curator (North) for English Heritage, working across assemblages from the Neolithic to the Cold War. His current work is focused on exploring methodologies for reappraising legacy archaeological archives within the English Heritage collections; developing a research framework for a major human remains assemblage; and establishing an oral history research project around the Royal Observer Corps.
Dr Keith McDonald is an Associate Professor of Media and Film Studies at York St John University. His current work concerns popular culture and the Cold War in 1980s fiction, and the history of Gothic Horror in Film and TV. He teaches Film Studies and Media and is the project-coordinator of York St John’s student publication Neutral.
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