Night Study #2 (2026-2027)

This is an online research seminar series that considers genealogies and practices of emancipatory education and models of collective study. It builds on a first iteration that examined the history of subversive educational forms and their emancipatory traditions Night Study #1 (2025-2026). It is jointly facilitated by Dr. Glenn Loughran (TUDublin) and Prof. Mick Wilson (University of Gothenburg). 

Night Study #2 is open to all educators in the Arts and Humanities working in both formal and informal settings. Participation free. Booking required. 

The seminar meets monthly on Wednesdays, 5-6:30 pm CET in 2026-2027. 

While the 2025-2026 series culminated in an exhibition, it is envisaged that the 2026-2027 cycle will lead to an edited volume that gathers the insights gained from both series. Our ambition is to consider collective study in ways that are not subordinated to a technocratic rationale of human capital formation nor hostage to the overblown claims for radicality pervading the contemporary art field’s romance of alternate educational praxis. In turning to genealogies of emancipatory education and models of collective study we seek to access the potentials of education while attending to the political economic and social reproductive dimensions of different educational praxes and traditions. In the seminar process itself we will try to enact a process of shared study that is congruent with these objects of study. Each session will be convened around a specific textual or other source (film, artwork, platfrom) which forms the point of departure for the session.  

Wednesday 7 October 5-6:30 pm CET / Glenn Loughran facilitates

Key Text: Lewis, T. E., & Hyland, P. B. 2026. “Gate 1. The Dark Infrastructures of Studoing” in The Alchemy of Research Creation . 

Wednesday 4 November 5-6:30 pm CET / Mick Wilson facilitates

Key Texts: (1)  Felman, S. 1992. Education and Crisis, Or, the Vicissitudes of Listening. In Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History, edited by S. Felman and D. Laub. London: Routledge and (2) Rak , J. 2006. “Do Witness: Don’t: A Woman’s Word and Trauma as Pedagogy” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies

Wednesday 2 December 5-6:30 pm CET / Glenn Loughran facilitates

Key Text (1) Britzman, D. P. 2000. “If the story cannot end: Deferred action, ambivalence, and difficult knowledge.” In Simon,R. I., Rosenberg, S. & Eppert C. (Eds.) Between hope and despair: Pedagogy and the remembrance of historical trauma (pp. 27–57). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. (2) Dadvand, B., Cahill, H., & Zembylas, M. (2022). “Engaging with difficult knowledge in teaching in the post-truth era: From theory to practice within diverse disciplinary areas.” Pedagogy, Culture & Society. 30(3), 285–293. 

Wednesday 20 January 5-6:30 pm CET / Mick Wilson facilitates

Key Text: (1) Biesta, G. 2017. Letting Art Teach. Arnhem: ArtEZ Press. (Extracts to be identified) (2) “Coming into the World, Uniqueness, and the Beautiful Risk of Education. An interview with Gert Biesta by Philip Winter” in Biesta, G. 2013. The Beautiful Risk of Education. London and New York: Routledge. 141-147

Wednesday 17 February 5-6:30 pm CET / Glenn Loughran facilitates

Key Text: (1) Friesen, N. 2025. “The Pedagogical Relation: A Perspective from Continental Pedagogy.” In Routledge International Handbook of Relational Pedagogy. (2) Too, Yun Lee. 2010. The Pedagogical Contract: The Economies of Teaching and Learning in the Ancient World. (Extracts to be identified).

Wednesday 24 March 5-6:30 pm CET / Mick Wilson facilitates

Key Text: (1) Kuma, S.H. 2018. “Epistemic justice through ontological reclamation in pedagogy: Detailing mutual (in)fallibility using inseparable categories.” Journal of Education. 72: 4-18.  (2) Burman, E. 2016. “Fanon and the child: Pedagogies of subjectification and transformation.” Curriculum Inquiry, 46:3, 265-285.

Wednesday 21 April 5-6:30 pm CET / Glenn Loughran facilitates

Key Text: To be announced  after discussion with the group

Wednesday 19 May 5-6:30 pm CET / Mick Wilson

Key Text: To be announced  after discussion with the group