The Counter-University. Histories, Movements, and Ambitions

Conference.

Creating autonomous and self-organised 'counter-universities' is a powerful tool for developing critique of higher education and imagining potentially more satisfying approaches to knowledge production. Historically, ‘counter universities’ gained popularity with student protests against the Vietnam War and for 'free speech' in the US in the mid-1960s. The transnational protest events of the late 1960s and the emerging alternative culture of the 1970s also made the declaration of 'free', 'critical', 'political' or 'autonomous' universities common practice in many Western European countries.

Since then, social movements and educational activists have declared counter-universities to cover a wide range of issues and ambitions. These have encompassed anti-capitalist, socialist, green and ecological initiatives, feminist projects as well as gay and queer initiatives. In the 1970s and 1980s, dissident groups in many Eastern European countries also organised clandestine 'flying universities' to explore educational alternatives to state-controlled higher education. To this day, counter-universities continue to play an important role in opening up spaces for dissent and opposition, and in creating spaces for experimenting with new subjects and learning methods, both in democratic countries and in dictatorial regimes.

Bringing together scholars from history, art (history), cultural studies, sociology and other disciplines interested in the history and present of the counter-university, this conference serves to share research and perspectives on this significant but under-researched transnational phenomenon.

All are welcome to participate for individual panels or the whole conference. Please register by 5 February, 2025, to assure there is space and plenty of coffee, by sending an e-mail to susanneschregel@hum.ku.dk.

The conference has kindly been funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the University of Copenhagen.