2025 Annual Conference

Gender, Networks and Leadership in the History of Education

Friday 14th to Sunday 16th of November 2025
The Winchester Hotel and Spa, Winchester, Hampshire

The official Conference website is now live! Click here.

Access it now for information on registration, conference programme and further information.

Call for Papers (Now closed for submissions)

This year’s History of Education Conference is inspired by the work of Professor Joyce Goodman (MBE) who made important contributions to scholarship regarding gender, networks and leadership in educational and historical settings.

Gender is a ubiquitous theme that can be identified in most educational encounters. Similarly, networks and leadership operate at the micro and macro levels – from informal groups to educational systems and transnational encounters. Leadership may operate formally through positions established by appointment or election as well as informally through practical example or in intellectual terms.

We invite contributions that speak to the conference themes of gender, networks and leadership:

• Gender – Life histories, multiple femininities, masculinities and gender non-conformity in the history of education
• Networks – Higher Education, transnationalism, cooperation, activism, international organisations for education, agency and citizenship  
• Leadership in the history of education – Governance, policy and management, Peace and peace building

This is an indicative list and we are keen to receive papers which may connect to these overall themes and also challenge them.

We welcome papers that focus on any region(s) and countries of the world, and on education and learning broadly conceived. We are keen to understand education in its widest sense not only on institutions of learning but also educational experiences across the life course, in workplaces, civil society and families.

Submission deadline: Thursday 31st of July 2025

How to submit: Submit your proposed paper title and abstract of no more than 200 words to Dr Eleanor Simpson and Dr Catherine Holloway at [email protected]

Please note papers should be no longer than fifteen minutes in duration.

About Professor Joyce Goodman (MBE):

We take inspiration for this conference from the life and work of Joyce and the key themes she animated in her work. In 2002, she was the founder of the Centre for History of Women’s Education (CHWE) at the University of Winchester, a network that exemplifies Joyce’s commitment to making connections and mentoring the development of scholars, scholarship and friendship both within and beyond the academy. Joyce’s career as Professor of History of Education encompassed a range of senior University leadership roles and posts of responsibility in national and transnational networks as the editor of History of Education, President of the History of Education Society UK, and secretary of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education.