International conference “Visions of Society: New Universities and the 20th Century”

Na Sveučilištu u Kölnu održava se od 28. do 30. ožujka 2019. međunarodna konferencija o novoosnovanim sveučilištima u Europi tijekom 20. stoljeća i njihovom odnosu prema političkim, društvenim i ekonomskim promjenama.

 

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On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its re-foundation in 1919, the University of Cologne offers the opportunity to reflect on the politics, relevance and impacts of the establishment of new universities in Europe during the 20th century. The international conference aims to compare conditions and intentions, forms and effects of new universities within changing political environments. While the European university model heavily relies on a tradition dating back to its medieval origins, it also proved to be flexible, innovative and open to the future.

 

Thus, the question of the relationship between the establishment of new universities and contemporary social change is the main focus of interest: How were new institutions of higher education embedded in the specific social, political and economic environment of their time? And in particular: which ideas of the present and future of society fueled these founding projects?

 

The conference will provide an opportunity for intensive discussion in a workshop-style atmosphere. The conference language is English.

 

Programm

 

THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019

 

14.00–14.15 h

Ralph Jessen (Cologne)

Welcome & Introduction

 

14.15–16.15 h

Panel 1: Ideas of Urban Modernity: Big Cities and New Universities in the Early 20th Century

Chair: Hans Peter ULLMANN (Cologne)

 

Kerstin THIELER (Cologne)

Old Traditions, New Concepts: Founding Narratives of the New Cologne University Around 1919

 

Barbara WOLBRING (Frankfurt/Main)

Visions of Economic Prosperity and Urban Modernity: The Bourgeois Founding of a University in Frankfurt 1914

 

Katrin STEFFEN (Luneburg/Berlin)

Crisis and Euphoria: The Establishments of Warsaw Universities during the First World War

 

Commentator: Ute SCHNEIDER (Duisburg-Essen)

 

16.15–17.00

Coffee Break & Change of Venue

 

17.00–18.30

Public Keynote Lecture

 

Axel FREIMUTH (Rector of the University of Cologne)

Welcome Address

 

Stefan COLLINI (Cambridge)

The Long Run: Contemporary Universities in Historical Perspective

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

 

9.00–11.00

Panel 2: Nation Building: State Formation and the University in Interwar Europe

Chair: Georg WAMHOF (Cologne)

 

Vesa VARES (Turku)

Cosmopolitan Nationalism and Conservative Reformism in the Re-foundation of the University of Turku, 1917–1920

 

Ning de CONINCK-SMITH (Aarhus)

Aarhus University between Modernity and Tradition. A Correspondence between Major Actors, 1919–1933

 

Antonie DOLEŽALOVÁ (Prague)

Pillars of the New Society: Universities in Inter-War Czechoslovakia between Education, Nation, and Money

 

Commentator: Habbo KNOCH (Cologne)

 

11.00–11.20 Coffee Break

 

11.20–12.20

Michael GRÜTTNER (Berlin)

New Foundations under National Socialism: The Reichsuniversitäten Straßburg and Posen

 

Chair: Habbo KNOCH (Cologne)

 

12.20–13.00 Lunch Break

 

13.00–15.00

Panel 3: Modernizing Postwar Societies: Strategies in Higher Education in an Era of Expansion

Chair: Ralph JESSEN (Cologne)

 

Wilfried RUDLOFF (Kassel)

“Temples of science”, “castles in the air” and “hotbeds of red cadres”. A Diversified Landscape of Higher Education in West Germany? (1960s and 1970s)

 

Mauro MORETTI (Siena)

“Adding to the nation’s stock of universities”. Main Trends and Issues Concerning the Establishment of New Universities in Italy 1945–1990

 

William WHYTE (Oxford)

From Redbrick to Plateglass. Founding New Universities in the United Kingdom, 1950s–1960s

 

Commentator: Christof DIPPER (Darmstadt)

 

15.00–15.30 Coffee Break

 

15.30–17.30

Panel 4: Concepts of Reform: University Foundations in the 1960s and 1970s

Chair: Steffi DE JONG (Cologne)

 

Fabian LINK (Frankfurt/Main)

Helmut Schelsky’s Reform University in East Westphalia: Bielefeld University as an Amalgamation of Nazi Concepts, the Humboldt Idea, and the “Cold War University”

 

Annemieke KLIJN (Maastricht)

“The Maastricht Experiment”. On the Legitimation of a “New Style” University in the South of the Netherlands in 1976

 

Anne CORBETT (LSE London)

The Creation of the European University Institute in Florence, 1972: A Lesson about Historical Memory, a Lesson about Europe and Higher Education

 

Commentator: Volker BARTH (Cologne)

 

17.30–18.00 Break & Change of Venue

 

18.30–20.00

Public Panel Discussion

 

Neue Universitäten – Neue Gesellschaft? Gründungsgeschichten im Rückblick

Venue: Amélie Thyssen Auditorium, Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Apostelnkloster 13-15, Cologne

 

Introduction: Hans Peter ULLMANN (Cologne)

 

Aylâ NEUSEL (concerning Kassel, 1973)

Wolfgang SCHIEDER (concerning Trier, 1971)

Wolfgang SCHLUCHTER (concerning Erfurt, 1994)

 

Moderation: Manuela GÜNTER (Cologne)

 

(The panel discussion, held in German, will be simultaneously translated into English for the non-German-speaking participants of the conference.)

 

SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2019

 

9.30–11.30

Panel 5: Open Society – Open University? Alternative Models in Higher Education

Chair: Jost DÜLFFER (Cologne)

 

Daniel WEINBREN (Open University)

“Disembodied and airborne”: Reflections on the First 50 Years of the Open University (UK)

 

Timocin CELEBI (Duisburg-Essen)

A Decentralized Institution of Further Education and North Rhine-Westphalia’s Comprehensive Plan for Higher Education: The Fernuniversität-Gesamthochschule Hagen

 

Susanne SCHREGEL (Cologne)

Where Freedom, Women and Monsters Meet. Some Remarks on Invented Universities

 

Commentator: Christa-Irene KLEIN (Freiburg)

 

11.30–12.15 Lunch break

 

12.15–14.15

Panel 6: Competition – Privatization – Internationalization: Developments in the Late 20th Century

Chair: Stefan GROHÉ (Cologne)

 

Jeroen HUISMAN (Ghent)

Does the Higher Education Institutional Landscape in Europe Really Change?

 

Julian LAMBERTY (Odense)

An Offspring of the Competition State? The Creation of the University of Southern Denmark in the Context of Late 20th Century University Politics in Denmark

 

Balázs TRENCSÉNYI (CEU Budapest)

The Dilemmas of the Model of a Private Non-Profit “Mission-driven” University: Post-Transition Developments in the “Other Europe” and the Story of Central European University

 

Commentator: Ralph JESSEN (Cologne)

 

14.15

Concluding Discussion

 

https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/termine-39558