ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Bridging the Gap: Current initiatives and obstacles regarding object-based teaching in Swedish universities

• In Event: “Pedagogies of Things” in the Natural History Humanities

English Abstract

The growing interest and engagement in using object-based pedagogy in the international community of History of Science, the Environmental Humanities and aligned fields has also taken root in Swedish universities. Shared experiences of such initiatives are an invaluable resource, yet in order to learn from and apply such collective knowledge, nationally and locally specific factors need to be taken into account. Drawing on experiences of working within both academic and botanical institutions in Sweden, in comparison to in the UK, it is clear that the role, success or even possibility of integrating object-based pedagogy into university teaching depends on the existence of infrastructures that provide a stable basis for collaboration. This paper focuses the factors shaping Swedish university-museum collaborations at present, in order to suggest ways forward for object-based pedagogy using natural history collections.

Author

• Anna Svensson, Uppsala University