Lecture by Professor Bernadette Baker

Lecture by Professor Bernadette Baker about the unconscious of history? How new theories of mind impacted educational theory, the formation of social sciences, and the conception of the West.

A mainstay of modern Western educational theory has been a strong post-Cartesian acceptance of distinct but interrelated entities called mind and body. As anthropology and cultural psychology have revealed, though, not all cultures share belief in the existence of such discrete entities or even have a word or analog for "mind."

This public lecture focuses on the shifting configuration of soul-mind-body relations in the 19th century trans-Atlantic North, the implications for the definition of the human, and the pedagogical and curricular practices that followed from acceptance of such concepts.

It is grounded in the window and springboard that the work of Harvard philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) provides. James made 17 voyages to Europe in his career, as well as to Brazil. His work offers significant insight into the discovery of the unconscious, new theories of child mind, practical advice for teachers, and the formation of concepts like "modern" and "Western." By reapproaching his less-visited texts of the turn of the 20th century, the lecture enables a new understanding of the dependencies of discourse in a globalizing world of the 21st.

Bernadette Baker is Professor at Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin, and Adjunct Professor at Section of Educational Research, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen.

The presentation will evolve around themes in Bernadette Baker's latest book.

Everyone is welcome, registration is not needed. For further information, please contact: Associate professor Trine Øland, troeland@hum.ku.dk