April 8th-9th, 2026: Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft Zürich (CH)
The 9th Zurich Workshop on Historical Educational Research is aimed at doctoral students who want to present and discuss fundamental questions of historical educational research based on their dissertation projects. Designed as a platform for exchange among doctoral candidates, the workshop’s focus is on presenting and discussing the current state of the students’ work, concentrating on methodological and theoretical reflections rather than content-related discussions.
The contributions should focus on how research questions, theoretical and methodological premises, as well as sources and research literature, are related. Additionally, they should demonstrate the research interest pursued, and the research context in which the expected results are situated. The workshop addresses the diversity of current research approaches and aims to explore the potential of interdisciplinary methodological considerations for historical research in education. Accordingly, the following guiding questions are central to the presentations and subsequent discussions:
- How do the selected sources fit the research question and the subject that is to be described and analysed? How can the selection of sources be justified?
- - What type of sources does the theoretical framework require? With which theoretical assumptions is the material organized, structured, and analyzed? What terminology is introduced and how is it used?
- How is the presentation of the results structured? What phenomena or considerations should be substantiated or refuted with the results?
- What methodological considerations are made? What historiographical potentials and contributions arise from the chosen perspective? What comes into focus, and what remains unseen?
The Call for Papers is exclusively aimed at doctoral candidates working on a topic relevant to the history of education, no matter the discipline in which the doctorate is pursued. Applications must be submitted via email to werkstatt@ife.uzh.ch by October 31, 2025.
The application should include:
- The presentation title
- An abstract of no more than one A4 page explicitly addressing the above-mentioned questions
- A short curriculum vitae
The speaking time for presentations is a maximum of 20 minutes. The workshop will be accompanied by Prof. Michaela Vogt and Dr. Lukas Boser Hofmann, who will provide feedback on the presentations, participate in discussions, and share insights from their research experience.
Expenses for accommodation are paid by the University of Zurich. Travel expenses are to be covered by the participants themselves. To enable a high-quality discussion, the number of speakers is limited. If there is a high number of applications, in addition to the quality of the abstracts, the diversity of contributions (methodological, theoretical, thematic) will be taken into account.