Spaces of the Nervous System: Intersections between Anatomical Architecture and Neuroscience
Workshop at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University, 15–16 June 2026
This workshop took the first Anatomy Institute at Aarhus University, built in 1933, as a focal case for investigating the relationship between space, pedagogy, and disciplinary identity. The case offered a rare opportunity to examine how architectural ambition, institutional priorities, and emerging scientific paradigms intersected at a formative moment in modern medicine. More broadly, it allowed us to ask how buildings function not merely as containers of knowledge but as active participants in shaping scholarly practice. Bringing this case into dialogue with international perspectives enabled a comparative discussion of how anatomical spaces across Europe and North America were adapted, repurposed, or rendered obsolete during the twentieth century.
Organisers:
- Donna Briggs Bødtkjer (organizer and chair), Associate Professor, Dept. of Biomedicine, Aarhus University
- Christine Beese (co-chair), Tenure-Track Professor of Architectural History, Institute of Art History, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
Participants:
- Annmarie Adams, Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science including Medicine, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Frank Stahnisch, Professor in History of Medicine and Health Care, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- Kamilla Brandt Pedersen, Assistant Lecturer, Dept. of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
- Tom Hagedorn Danielsen, Architect MAA, RIBA, former Partner at CF Møller Architects
- Uğurgül Tunç, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Esben Thorup Boel, human anatomy conservator, Dept. of Biomedicine, Aarhus University
Attendees:
- Marie Krüger and Nicole Falconi-Müller, PhD students, Emmy Noether Research Group on Anatomical Theatres, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
