Research Interests

I am currently on a full-time writing sabbatical financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ, 2025) for the project Pedagogical Housekeeping: An inquiry into corporeal and sensuous dimensions of education. The book explores the ‘manual labor’ of teachers, that is, the embodied and sensuous ‘work’ that needs to be in place prior to dialogue if conversations about difficult existential, ethical, and political issue, across difference, are to take place.

My research is placed in the intersection of philosophy and general pedagogy (the German bildung tradition) focusing on the questions that late modern societies characterized by values pluralism, legitimation crisis, conflict and difference poses to education and to the teaching profession. I have a research history of combining empirical and theoretical work and my philosophical inquiries are always empirically rooted. Research questions concern the place and role of religion (religious subjectivity) in cosmopolitan and deliberative models of education, ways of creating commonality in a time of pluralism and conflict, the gendered coding of religious education teaching, the philosophical foundations of school culture for academic success and pupils’ well-being, pedagogical ritualization, and the role of the body and the senses as preconditions for teaching and educational formation. I publish in philosophy of education, drawing inspiration from pedagogical theory, sociology, post secular philosophy, and feminist philosophy.

I have recently finalized research within two projects funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR): Forms of Formation: A Pedagogical-Philosophical Inquiry into Embodied Tensions around Gender Equality and Social Equality in the Classroom (2020-2023) together with Elisabet Langmann (research director), Södertörn University, and Sharon Todd, Maynooth University, Ireland, and How can schools reduce unequal educational opportunities? (2020-2023) conducted by Alireza Behtoui, Södertörn University.

I am part of two international research networks on sustainability issues in education: Public Pedagogy and Sustainable Challenges (2017-2021) funded by the Flemish Research Council that brings together educational theorists, sustainability education researchers, political scientists and researchers in the field of sustainability transition governance from Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Ireland and South-Africa, and, PEDST The Public role of Education in relation to Democratic Sustainability Transitions, funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR, 2020-) that brings together researchers from Uppsala University, Ghent University, Maynooth University, and Södertörn University where I am responsible for the research group Feminist Aesthetics in Public Education (FAPE). I am also an affiliated researcher at IMS: Institute for Research on Multi-Religiousness and Secularity.

I have previously conducted the project Lived Values: Lived values: a pedagogical-philosophical groundwork of the value basis of Swedish schools (VR 2015-2019), a study that combined philosophical analysis with empirical data (focus group interviews) and aimed at developing general didactical (Ger. Allgemeine Didaktik) foundations for the fostering task of schools.

I have also been responsible for the Swedish part of the project The Inquiring Classroom funded by the Council of Europe (ERASMUS +), together with researchers in Greece (Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Athens) and in Ireland (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and Maynooth University, Dublin) - a project aimed at developing teaching through arts based methodologies for teachers in Europe working with ethics and values ​​in the integration of newly arrived.

I have previously studied the gendered coding of the teaching of religious studies in high school within the project Conceptions of femininity and masculinity in the classroom (VR, 2011-2015) and my dissertation, Seeing Otherwise: Renegotiating Religion and Democracy as Questions for Education (2010), explores how the cosmopolitan ideal of education (Martha Nussbaum) and the deliberative model of democracy (Jürgen Habermas) perceive of religion and the religious subject.

TEACHING

I teach Timeless pedagogical problems (undergraduate level), The prerequisites of pedagogy: theory and policy (post gradutate level) and within the educational sciences core syllabus (UVK) in teacher education.

OTHER

- Assistant Editor for Journal of Philosophy of Education
- Programme Chair for International Network of Philosophers of Education (INPE): https://inpe.info/

I am a member of the following international research organizations:
NERA (Nordic Educational Research Association);
EERA (European Educational Research Association);
PESGB (Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain) and
INPE (International Network of Philosophers of Education).

I am a member of the Editorial Board for Utbildning & Demokrati and Pedagogisk Forskning i Sverige and I review articles for Journal of Curriculum Studies; British Journal of Religious Education, Gender and Education and Demokrati & Utbildning.

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLES (refereed)

Bergdahl, L. (submitted). Everyday Temporalities: Rethinking The Modus of Ritualized Practices in Education. Ethics and Education.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (submitted). Unfolding School Culture at the Right Distance to Languages of Metrics and Mystery. Journal of Curriculum Studies.

Bergdahl, L. (2025). The pedagogical potential of classroom ritualization: Or, teaching in the subjunctive. Research in Education (Manchester), on-line publication.

Bergdahl, L. (2023). Editorial: pedagogical forms in times of pandemic. Ethics and education, 2023, Vol.18 (1), p.1-5.

Bergdahl, L. (2023). Retrotopian risks, constant translation, without noise reduction: a response to Jan Masschelein. Ethics and education, 2023, Vol.18 (1), p.45-50.

Bergdahl, L. (2022). ‘Migrating Meanings and Pedagogical Profanation: An Educational Approach to Rituals and Traditions in Pre/Schools’. In Kuusisto, A. The Routledge international handbook of the place of religion in early childhood education and care. New York: Routledge.

Bergdahl, L., & Langmann, E. (2022). ‘Pedagogical publics: Creating sustainable educational environments in times of climate change’. In European Educational Research Journal EERJ, 21(3), 405-418.

Bergdahl, Lovisa., & Langmann, Elisabet. (2020). Sustaining What is Valuable: Contours of an Educational Language About Values. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 54(5), 1260-1277.

Bergdahl, Lovisa (2020) 'Kvinnan som plats och kvinnans plats', i Kvinnligt religiöst ledarskap: En vänbok till Gunilla Gunner (red.) Sorgenfrei & Thurfjell. Stockholm: Södertörn Studies on Religion 10, ISBN 978-91-89109-03-2.

Bergdahl L. (2019) Educationally Connecting to the Past in Teaching. In Philosophical Perspectives on Teacher Training. In: Peters M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2018). Pedagogical Postures: A Feminist Search for a geometry of the Educational Relation. Ethics and Education.

Bergdahl, L. (2017b). Crisis or Struggle? A Language of Natality as a Struggle for Education. In Studier i Pædagogisk Filosofi. Årg. 6, Nr. 1 (2017), s. 25-38.

Bergdahl, L. (2017a). Language matters: gendering Religious Education teaching. In British Journal of Religious Education, ISSN 0141-6200, E-ISSN 1740-7931, p. 1-10.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2017b). Time for Values: Responding Educationally to the Call from the Past. In Studies in Philosophy and Education.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2017a). Where Are You?: Giving Voice to the Teacher by Reclaiming the Public/Private Distinction. In Journal of Philosophy of Education, 51 (2), 461-475.

Bergdahl, L. (2009) Lost in Translation: On the Untranslatable and its Ethical Implications for Religious Pluralism. In Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 43, no 1, p. 31-44.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Bergdahl, Lovisa & Langmann, Elisabet. (2020). ‘Feminism within Philosophy of Education’. In A History of Western Philosophy of Education, Vol. 5. In the Contemporary Landscape, (ed.) Ana Pagès. London: Bloomsbury Academic, p. 57-83

Bergdahl, L. (2017c). Könsskillnadens religionskunskapsundervisning. I Interkulturell Religionsdidaktik, (red. Olof Frank & Peder Thalén). Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Bergdahl, L. (2012). Religion och bildning: Emilia Fogelklou och bildningsbegreppets mystika förankring. I Svenska Bildningstraditioner Del II. (red.) Anders Burman och Patrik Mehrens, Göteborg: Daidalos.

Bergdahl, L. (2011). När mänskligheten får ansikten. I Det goda lärandet, (red.) Anders Burman och Patrik Mehrens, Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Bergdahl, L. (2009). Public Education Private Religion – on redefining borders in religious education. I Your Heritage and Mine: Teaching in a Multi-Religious Classroom, (red.) Ewa Roos & Jenny Berglund. Studies in Inter-Religious Relations, Nr. 43. s. 60-67. Uppsala: Universitetstryckeriet.

CONFERENCE PAPERS (refereed)

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2018). The Work of Values: A Post-Conflictual Pedagogical Response. Paper presented at ECER, Bolzano, Italy, August 2018.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2017). Gendering the Scholastic Techniques. Paper presented at ECER, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 2017.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E. (2017). Time for Values: Responding Educationally to the Call from the Past. Paper presented at PESGB, Oxford, England, March 2017.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann E. (2017). Ambivalent Teaching: Gendering the Scholastic Techniques. Paper presented at NERA, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 2017.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2016). Making Values Common: On the Importance of Turning Fostering into a Public Matter. Paper presented at INPE, Warsaw, Poland, August 2016.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2016). "Where Are You?": Teaching Values and Virtues by Reclaiming the Private/Public Distinction. Paper presented at ECER, Dublin, Ireland, August 2016.

Bergdahl, L. & Langmann, E (2016). No Longer and Not Yet: Teaching Values and Virtues beyond the Private/public Distinction. Paper presented at NERA, Helsinki, Finland, March 2016.

Bergdahl, L. (2014). Religious Education For More Than One Sex. Paper for the AARE Conference, Australian Association for Research in Education, Brisbane, 1st - 5th of November.

Bergdahl. L. (2012). ‘Educating for a Love’s Difference: on democracy, religion, and the conflicted space between us’. Paper presented at NERA, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Bergdahl. L. (2012). Possibilities for New Beginnings in the Present. Article presenteed at CASEP (Centre for Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics) Religion, Civil Religion, and the Common Good, London Metropolitan University, London.

Bergdahl. L. (2011). “Unfinished Selves: Rethinking Freedom as an Iconic Relation of Self to Others”. Paper presented at the 11th Essex Conference in Critical Political Theory, University of Essex, Storbritannien.

Bergdahl, L. (2011). Unfinished Selves: Rethinking Freedom as an Iconic Relation of Self to Others, EASR 2011 (European Association for the Study of Religions), 18-22 September, Budapest, Hungary.

Bergdahl, L. (2011). Seeing Education Otherwise: After Secularization. Paper presented at Education in a Post Secular Society Conference, Saturday 29th January 2011, Canterbury, Great Britain.

Bergdahl. L. (2010). ’”Giving an Account of Oneself”: the limits of dialogue and the irony of narratability’. Paper presented at ECER, Helsinki.

Bergdahl, L. (2009). Response paper to panel on cosmopolitanism and education at AERA, American Educational Research Association, San Diego, 13-17 April, USA.

Bergdahl. L. (2008). ’Lost in Translation – on the Untranslatable and its Ethical Implications for Religious Pluralism’. Paper presented at SCPT (Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology), Gordon College, Boston, USA.

Bergdahl. L. (2007). ’”Educating for a World out of Joint”: Challenging Orders and Borders for Religious Diversity in Liberal Education’. Paper presenterd at PESGB, Oxford.

Bergdahl. L. (2006). ’Exclusion and Embrace. Paper presented at NERA, Örebro University, Sweden.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Bergdahl, L. Det Banalt Goda. Ledare i tidskriften Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Nr. 4, 2018

Bergdahl, L. #metoo och moderlöshetens kultur. Artikel i tidskriften Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Nr. 8, 2017

Bergdahl, L. Demokratins motstridighet. Ledare i tidskriften Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Temanummer: Demokrati. Nr. 4, 2017

Bergdahl, L. Att skola skönhetssinnet. Artikel i tidskriften NOD: Forum för Tro, Kultur och Samhälle. Temanummer: Postsekulär kompetens?, Nr. 2-3, 2016, sid. 65-69.

Bergdahl, L. Vad vill vi säga? Om yttrandefriheten och det goda samhället. Ledare i Signum: Katolsk Orientering om Kyrka, Kultur & Samhälle. Nr. 2, 2015.