Staging of Education: On the History of an Ambivalent Practice

The conference Staging of Education: On the History of an Ambivalent Practice, taking place on 11 and 12 June 2026 at the main building of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, is jointly organized by the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Arbeitskreis für vormoderne Erziehungsgeschichte, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with generous support from the Czech-German Fund for the Future.

Conference Programme

Throughout history, the representation and staging of education have taken diverse forms, manifesting in texts, images, objects, and buildings. This event explores the German concept of Inszenierung, examining its dual nature: as a positively perceived, successful performance, and as an artificial or exaggerated portrayal. The central aim is to understand how and why education was presented to various social groups, and what consequences arose when such staging was dismissed as overambitious. The conference focuses on the period from the late Middle Ages to the mid-18th century while also exploring more recent historical eras, tracing the continuities and transformations between pre-modern and modern representations of education through themes such as educational self-fashioning, institutional staging, and performative acts like celebrations and examinations. 

Conference language: German, English