The research project Edutopias. Reforms of everyday school practices. Denmark 1945–1975, funded by the Danish independent research fund and hosted by the Department of education at Aarhus University, invites you to join four digital, international, explorative seminars. They are also open to extra contributions/contributors, please notify them about which dialogue you would like to be a presenting part in. If interested, please send a note to professor Ning de Coninck-Smith at ning@edu.au.dk – and they will forward a zoom link as well as more information about the content and participants to you.

For more information about the research project, please see EDUTOPIAS

Dialogue 1: Bits and pieces. Methodological reflections on using and combining affective sources for the writing of contemporary histories.

Lead: Professor Inés Dussel, CINVESTAV, Mexico

Speaker: Professor Pablo Toor-Blanco, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile

Date Wednesday the 1st of October 2025

Time: 3 pm – 5.30 pm (CET/CEST)

Zoom-link: https://aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/61603183491?pwd=k3tbxAA4R6mH8L07mGjekaS79aHhvP.1

In this dialogue, we will introduce the topic of using affective methods in the study of the history of education. We will explore the potential of this approach and the specific challenges involved in reading historical sources affectively and when examining the empirical role of affects in educational history. Finally, we will explore the role of affects and the various means through which school change occurs. The dialogue will begin with presentations by two distinguished scholars in the field: Prof. Inés Dussel (Mexico) and Prof. Pablo Andres Toro Blanco (Chile). This will be followed by an exploration of empirical examples and theoretical readings from the research project ‘Edutopias. Reforms of Everyday School Practices: Denmark, 1945–1975’ based at Aarhus University, Denmark (EDUTOPIAS). We invite scholars and other interested participants to join this dialogue meeting, with the aim of sharing experiences, engaging in discussion, and refining one another’s work on affect methodologies in the history of education.

Prof. Inés Dussel is Full-Time Researcher at the Department of Educational Research, CINVESTAV, Mexico, a top leading public research institution in Latin America. She got her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served as Director of the Education Area, Latin American School for the Social Sciences (Argentina). She was President of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) (2022-2025).

Pablo Toro-Blanco is a Full-Time professor and researcher at the History Department, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile. He got his Ph.D. in History from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He serves as vice president of the Chilean Society for the History of Education. His current research project (2025-2029), funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development, is titled “The Lived Nation: Materiality, Emotions, and Experience in Secondary Education in Chile.” c. 1830–c. 1965″.

If you have any questions about the digital dialogue, or if you encounter any technical difficulties with the Zoom link on the day of the event, please get in touch with Lisa Rosén Rasmussen (lisa@edu.au.dk).

Dialogue 2: Postwar school reforms in the Nordic welfare states: 1968 and beyond.

Lead: Associate professor Katharina Sass, University of Bergen, Norway

Speaker: Associate professor Anja Guidici, Cardiff University, UK

Date Tuesday the 2^nd of December 2025

Time: 9 am – 11.30 am (CET)

Dialogue 3: Progressive education and school experiments in the late 20th century.

Lead: Professor Julie McLeod, The University of Melbourne, Australia

One of the days of April 13-17, 2026

Time 9 am- 11.30 am (CET) [Melbourne 5 pm-7 pm]

Dialogue 4: Utopian imaginaries and articulations and the 1975 reform.

Lead: Professor Joakim Landahl, University of Stockholm, Sweden.

One of the days of August14-18, 2026

Time: 9 am – 11.30 am (CET)

Photo by Feliphe Schiarolli on Unsplash