The project explores state-university relations in European higher education policy, including recent opposition against globalization and re-nationalizing trends in the wake of the Cold War. Since 1999, European higher education has undergone an extensive harmonization process across nation borders - a process through which the EU has established a ‘European Higher Education Area’. Meanwhile, universities are also increasingly caught between these ideals of deeper integration and protectionist national agendas. Against this backdrop, the project seeks to explore the societal role of the University in contemporary European states, examining its “national” role and how it might be changing. Centering on universities and their interaction with the (nation) state and international cooperation in Poland, France, the UK and Denmark, the project offers a comparative approach to understanding contemporary trends in European higher education policy making. The project also examines recent actions taken by the EU to deepen European integration and collaboration on education and research.
The Asserting the Nation project is affiliated with the new EU COST ACTION, Rising nationalisms, shifting geopolitics and the future of European higher education and research openness (OPEN). From October 30th, 2023, The Asserting the Nation Project leader, Katja Brøgger, takes up the post as chair of the Action with Aarhus University as the Grant Holder Institution. The Action is running from October 2023 until October 2027.
The Action includes 38 European COST member countries and cooperating countries. Together scholars of the Action will explore how the rise of new nationalisms and geopolitical tensions exert a growing pressure on the openness of European higher education and research and examine its implications for the future of Europe. By facilitating knowledge exchange and collaboration, the action will strengthen and showcase European scholarship, and liaise with stakeholders in the domain of higher education and research to generate ideas for addressing and alleviating the growing threats to the University’s openness and global cooperation capabilities.
The Action is based on four working groups that bring together inter-disciplinary researchers to explore the shifting dynamics between the University, the nation-state and the European integration project:
For further information, please see COST's website.
Stay posted for the upcoming launch of the Action's own website.
Event: Keynote lecture
Date: 10th Nov. 2023
Keynote Speaker: Katja Brøgger
Location: Tampere University, Finland
Event: Talk at Tampere University
Date: 9th Nov. 2023
Keynote Speaker: Katja Brøgger
Location: Tampere University, Finland
Event: Keynote Presentation
Date: 24th Okt. 2023
Keynote Speaker: Katja Brøgger
Platform: Global Childhoods Network
Event: Guest lecturer at external academic institution
Date: Okt. 2023 → Feb. 2024
Location: Tampere University, Finland
Event: Presentation at ECER conference 2023
Date: 22nd Aug. 2023 → 25th Aug. 2023
Keynote/Participants: Katja Brøgger and Hannah Moscovitz
Location: ECER Conference, University of Glasgow, UK
| DFF Sapere Aude Forskningsleder: | DFF Inge Lehmann: |
|---|---|
| Asserting the Nation: Comparative studies on the rise of neo-nationalism in higher education. The case of continental Europe. | Asserting the Nation: Comparative studies on the rise of neo-nationalism in higher education. The case of United Kingdom and Brexit. |
| Project Period: 01.07.2021 - 30.06.2025 | Project Period: 01.07.2021 - 30.06.2025 |
International Partners:
| International Partners:
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| Funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) | Funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) |
Event: Seminar, Keynote Presentation
Date: 17th Feb. 2023
Keynote/Participants: Katja Brøgger
Location: Tampere University, Finland
Abstract: In the last decade, an upsurge in new nationalisms and geopolitical shifts has challenged European integration. These transformations within the political sphere in which universities operate exert growing pressure on the openness of higher education and research. This talk will address how the current(re)nationalization of higher education and (re)politicization of research increasingly influence university politics, including autonomy and governance, academic freedom, open science and international engagement. Universities seem to find themselves entangled in contrasting visions of Europe: between a vision of deeper political integration and openness and visions where European nation-states (re)gain power as the locus of political sovereignty or where protectionist regionalism and security politics challenge open exchange with communities outside the EU. Against this backdrop, we will discuss the politics of scaling in education policy studies.
Event: Visit at external academic institution
Date: Jan. 2023 → Feb. 2023
Location: Sciences Po Aix, France
Event: Keynote Lecture
Date: 27th Jan. 2023
Keynote/Participants: Katja Brøgger
Location: Sciences Po Aix, Mesopolhis Centre Méditerranéen de Sociologie, de Science Politique & d’Histoire, France
Event: Seminar
Date: 18th Jan. 2023 → 20th Jan. 2023
Keynote/Participants: Katja Brøgger (organizer) and Dorota Dakowska (organizer)
Location: Sciences Po Aix, France
Event: Visit at external academic institution
Date: 2023
Location: University of Cambridge, UK
On the 27th of January, Sciences Po Aix, the Mesopolhis, Centre Méditerranéen de Sociologie, de Science Politique & d’Histoire, hosted a seminar that invited keynote presentations from Associate Professor and the ‘Asserting the Nation’ research director, Katja Brøgger, and research director at CNRS, Université de Toulouse, Michel Grossetti.
On the 18th of January, Sciences Po Aix, the Mesopolhis, Centre Méditerranéen de Sociologie, de Science Politique & d’Histoire, hosted a workshop on Universities in Times of Crisis bringing international scholars from Denmark and France to present and discuss their studies on the transformations in the higher education sector in Europe. Among the discussed transformations were new managerial schemes, privatization of the sector, protectionist and neo-nationalist tendencies, the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions and the Russian war in Ukraine.
The workshop was organized by Policy Futures program director and Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Katja Brøgger, and Professor in political sciences from Sciences Po Aix, Dorota Dakowska. The seminar included presentations by the organizers, Corine Eyraud (Aix-Marseille Université), Ester Zangrandi (Aarhus University), Hicham Jamid (Institut de Reserche pour le Développement), Rasmus Harsbo (Aarhus University), Hannah Moscovitz (Aarhus University), Théotime Chabre (Sciences Po Aix, IC Migrations) and Olga Gille-Belova (Université Bourdeaux Montaigne).
The workshop was finalized with a roundtable discussion on Ukrainian academics in wartime, in which Oksana chepelyk (Modern Art Research Institute of NAAU, AMU), Olga Gold (Universi of Odessa, AMU), Oksana Shostak (National Aviation University, Kyiv, AMU), Iryna Sikorska (Mariupol State University), and Dorota Dakowska (Sciences Po Aix) participated.
The seminar and following workshop at Sciences Po Aix was part of the 'Asserting the Nation' project led by Katja Brøgger.
The Project was officially launched in two webinars on October 29 and November 10, 2021. The webinars brought together leading scholars to discuss issues at the heart of the project, including the rise of neo-nationalism in Europe, policy-making in a conflicting EU and the entanglement of universities in current geopolitical tensions. For more information, take a look at previous events in the Policy Futures International Webinar Series: https://dpu.au.dk/en/research/research-programmes/policy-futures
The project is currently in its data collection and fieldwork phase.
The Interdisciplinary Thematic Institutes of the University of Strasbourg hosted a 2-day workshop on the role of universities in European (dis)integration. On the 14th and 15th of October 2021, the university gathered researchers from various disciplines and European institutions to discuss the European education space between international alliances, knowledge policies and new emerging nationalisms.
During the workshop, Associate Professor and the ‘Asserting the Nation’ research director, Katja Brøgger, gave a talk titled Re-nationalizing Europe? On Post-Cold War governance arrangements in European higher education and the rise of neo-nationalism.
Data controller responsible for the processing of personal data in the research project:
Aarhus University
Nordre Ringgade 1
DK-8000 Aarhus C
CVR no.: 31119103
The research project is headed by Associate Professor and PI, Katja Brøgger who can be contacted at:
Address: Danish School of Education, Tuborgvej 164, 2400 Copenhagen NV
Phone: 0045 93508478
Email: kb@edu.au.dk
Data protection officer at Aarhus University:
Søren Broberg Nielsen
Data protection officer/DPO
In order to gain insight from key stakeholders in each case study, interviews will be conducted with policy-makers, higher education stakeholders and political actors engaged in higher education policy making, implementation and practice in the four national case studies and the EU.
The project uses the scientific research purposes as legal basis. Pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation, the project should provide all participants/data subjects with information about how their personal data will be processed.
All personal data collected for the project will be pseudonymized and stored in accordance with GDPR compliance rules. Personal data is pseudonymized by removing all directly identifying information from the data. A unique serial number will be added within the framework of pseudonymization. The serial number - with an associated separate 'key file' - will make it possible to return to the original person identification. This so-called ‘translation key’ will be stored separately from the pseudonymized data using an Aarhus University-based GDPR compliant solution only made available to the project researchers. Data harvested from interviews, documents, archives, and other sources will be stored on a secure Aarhus university based platform.
Personal data will not be subject to automated processing and will not be disclosed to others.
Data from interviews will be pseudonomized in research publications with reference only, in a few instances, to the organization (organizations such as ministries will be referenced, universities will remain pseudonomized).
Your personal data will be processed by Aarhus University for as long as required by the research purpose and the rules on storage according to responsible conduct of research. When we no longer need your personal data for processing, the data will be erased.
Complaints about the processing of personal data should be directed to the supervisory authority:
The Danish Data Protection Agency
Carl Jacobsens Vej 35
DK-2500 Valby
