[H-verkko] CFP: University jubilees and university history at the beginning of the 21st century

[agricola at utu.fi]

Agricolan Artikkelipyyntötietokantaan
( http://agricola.utu.fi/nyt/pyynnot/ )
on tullut seuraava ilmoitus:

University jubilees and university history at the beginning of the
21st century

(Because of the postponement of the UN Climate Conference in
Copenhagen from November to the middle of December, we also need to
postpone our own conference on 'University jubilees and university
history at the beginning of the 21st century' from the 10th and 11th
of December to the 14th and 15th of January. We are sorry for the
inconvenience.)

University jubilees and university history at the beginning of the
21st century
Copenhagen, 14th and 15th of January 2010

Researching and writing its history, has always been one of the tasks
of the university. From the late Middle Ages, rectores magnifici and
other professors delivered speeches on the occasion of anniversary
celebrations and university jubilees, in which they presented the
glorious past of their own institution. In the nineteenth century,
these speeches were often replaced by thick and impressive
commemorative volumes. Of course, this kind of research was
concentrated on one university only, with little or no attention to
other universities in the same country and even less to those in
other countries. In general, such homage offered a celebratory,
institutional history, in which less handsome episodes were often
disregarded.

At the beginning of the 21st century, university jubilees still cause
huge university history projects. This year, extensive volumes have
been published to commemorate the foundation of the Helsinki
University of Technology in 1908; the Forum for University History is
established some years ago in order to prepare the 200th anniversary
of the University of Oslo in 2011; the University of Iceland will
celebrate its first centenary in 2011 with an extensive study of its
own history. And apart from these projects, various Northern European
universities have set up in recent years specific research projects to
study their own history, e.g. Copenhagen, Turku and Uppsala.

Nordic universities are no exception in this regard: a 'Kommission
zur Erforschung der Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte' is
established on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the
University of Leipzig, the University of Cambridge is preparing a
huge celebration of its 8th centenary in 2009 and also the 200th
anniversary of the University of Berlin (historically closely
connected to some of its Nordic counterparts) will not pass unnoticed
in 2010. All of these university history projects face the challenge
to commemorate 'the own glorious past' in a critical way and without
losing out of sight the relationships with other institutions of
higher education at home and abroad.

The aim of this historiographical workshop is especially to study
these challenges and to find ways how to deal with them.
Representatives of the various jubilee committees and project leaders
of other research projects are invited to present the state of the art
in university history at their institution, especially indicating the
difficulties and limitations. Together they will provide the
participants of an extensive overview of the ongoing research in
university history in Northern Europe, with special attention for the
existing lacks. The picture will be enlarged by three keynote lectures
on the university jubilees, and university history projects connected
to these celebrations, in Cambridge (Elizabeth Leedham-Green),
Leipzig (Jonas Flöter) and Berlin (Peter-Thomas Walther).

The programme of the workshop will offer much time for discussion in
order to indicate and initiate possibilities for future collaborative
and comparative research. The main question is how to make use of the
results obtained through the existing projects, which are however
always concentrated on one particular university (mindful of the
tradition of university history as jubilee history), to obtain new
insights and perspectives in the history of Northern European
universities in general, nation-building, the formation of elites and
other related themes.

Paper proposals (500 words) should be submitted to the following
e-mail address: pieter.dhondt at helsinki.fi before the 31st of August
2009. Presentations must be no longer than 20 minutes, followed by 10
minutes discussion time. Travelling expenses and subsistence are
covered by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the
Humanities and the Social Sciences (NOS-HS), although we encourage
the participants to have their costs paid by their own institution if
possible.

LIT Verlag - Berlin is interested to publish the conference papers
and conference results. The conclusions of the workshop will be
brought together by Pieter Dhondt and Laura Kolbe.

On behalf of the organising committee,
Pieter Dhondt

Organising committee: Pieter Dhondt (University of Helsinki /
Université libre de Bruxelles), Robert Marc Friedman (University of
Oslo), Guðmundur Hálfdánarson (University of Iceland) and Ejvind
Slottved (University of Copenhagen).


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Ilmoituksen lähetti: Agricola <agricola at utu.fi>
Ilmoitus vanhentuu: 01.09.2009
Lisätietoja WWW-osoitteesta: http://