Constructing and Reconstructing History. University Jubilees at Aarhus University. Told and Untold, 1928 – 1978

: This chapter investigates the told and untold, when writing university jubilee histories. The case in point is Aarhus University. The text has a triple am-bition. First, it shows how history was a tool and an argument for the creation of an university in Aarhus – and how it kept its legitimizing role even after the university was established in 1928. The narrative was anchored in a mix of private storytelling by members of ‘ the pioneering generation ’ and commissioned jubilee histories. Institutional as well as personal ambitions were of importance to the staging of the past. History was used, but also done. Second, I challenge some of the silences in the jubilee histories through a gendered and affective reading of institutional and private archives of some of the university ’ s founding fathers. This approach takes its inspiration from feminist thinker Maria Tamboukou ’ s neo-materialist reading of archives as laboratories, where silences and fragments engage the fantasy and imagination of the historian. Thirdly, I wish to contribute to the reflections on how to connect institutional jubilee histories with narratives of academic every day routine, lived and done by men and women who interact, with all the passions, conflicts, power and gendered hierarchies this entails.


Introduction
Wednesday, the 11 th of September 1946 was an important date in the history of AarhusU niversity.O nt his day, the university inaugurated its main building with the impressive aula. In October 1944,aBritish air raid directed towards the Gestapo headquarter at the student halls, had accidentallyd estroyed the building then under construction. It had killed atotalof7 5workers and German soldiers and buried the architect under the ruble. Twoy ears later,i nS eptember 1946,the university′sr ebirth took place, accompanied by speeches by the rector in front of 800 guests and the promotion of the first honorary doctors.The event spurred several publications, written by some of the main protagonists about the earlyd ayso ft he university.
This chapter sets out to discuss what is told and is not told when university histories,and especiallyjubilee histories,are written. In the first part of my contribution, Iwillshow how anarrative about the origins of Aarhus University was created by an inner circle of men with different stakesi nt he genesis, but also how the process was contested to such adegree that some of the disagreements wereaddressed in privatecorrespondence.Takentogether,itbecomes clear,that the writing of the history of the university was not agiven thing.How this history was written mattered as meaning-making,i tm attered to identities, for self-perception and individual legacy, and it mattered as ac onflictual and entangled process, wherea ctual livesw ithin academia crossed memoirs, newspaper clippings, privated ocuments and correspondence.
The chapter is anchored in an understanding of the university as something done or performed by different,b ut interacting,m en and women, as ap rocess which is embodied in everydayroutineswith all the passions, conflicts and emotions, power,h ierarchies and expectations, but also materialities and buildings this involves.¹ In the second part,Ithereforec ontinue my reflections on the uncovering of the untold stories by twisting the narrativess urrounding the university'sorigins and by focusing on how the first temporary lecturer in English was employed at Aarhus University. In the final section, Ir eflect on the making of university history in adual and entangled sense: as jubilee historiesand as stories of academic everydayl ife.

September 1946: AN ew Beginning
Let us return to that solemn inauguration event in September 1946 in Aarhus, with its rows of men in whitet ies and tailcoats,a ccompanied by their wives in evening dresses and pretty hats. The chair of the university board, the mayor, the minister of education, the rector and the chair of the buildingcommittee spoke at length about the building, the effortsand financial support of local entrepreneurs, the city council and state authorities, which had made this happen. The speakers praised how students and teachers would benefit from the special design of the new university.Accordingtothe rector,the linguist and pro- De Coninck-Smith, Ning:Gender encounters university -university encounters gender:affective archivesA arhus University,D enmark 1928University,D enmark -1953. In: Women'sH istory Review 29:3 (2020). pp. 413 -428. fessor Ad. Stender-Petersen (1893-1963, the building would be like areal 'Alma Mater',g reetingi ts students with open arms, lovea nd comfort.I na ccordance with modernw ork techniques,w hich demanded efficiency alsoo fa cademic labor,each institute had been equipped with alibrary,studyand teaching spaces and offices.The teachers would movet heir research out of their privateh omes and students and teachers could meet and mingle in the lobby,a tt he libraries or in the offices. The new building complex was part of the campus design plan, which had its origins in the very earlyd ayso ft he universitya fter the First World War. It stood in stark contrastt ot he University of Copenhagen with its manyd ispersed buildingsa nd residence halls, wheres tudents -especiallyf rom the province -could easilyg et lost. Apart from afew references to the long and winding road to getthis far,the history of the university′sfirst opening in 1928 was not on the speakers′ agendaeven if the inauguration event took place on the samedate, the 11 th of September, that would be remembered as the founding day. According to the mayor, the history could be studied in several recentlyp ublishedb ooks. What reallym attered to the festive oratorsn ow was the present; the collaboration among Nordic universities, the cooperation between Aarhus and Copenhagen, and the importance of science in order to re-build the post-war world. "Science demands everything from man",asthe chairman of the university board CarlHolst-Knudsen phrased it.With the new building,A arhus University had made am ajor step to advance the workingc onditionso ft eachers, scientists and students.²  Anon.: Aarhus Universitets Indvielses-o gP romotionsfest den 11. September 1946.B eretning udgivete fter Aarhus Universitets Laererforsamlings Foranstaltninga fU niversitetets Rektor". In: Acta Jutlandica, Aarsskrift for Aarhus Universitet XIX,1 (U 4) (1947). p. 7.
Abb. 10: Rectora nd professor of Slavonic languages Ad. Stender-Petersen is overseeing the processo fp romoting one of the many honoraryd octors at the celebration in September 1946. Stender-Petersen is wearing the rector′sc hain which had been donated to Aarhus Universityi n1 935 by the chairman of the university board, Carl Holst-Petersen. Like the promotion of honoraryd octors,t he rector′sc hain wasa ni mportant emblemo ft he new university other than academic gowns which weren ot put into use, despiteK nud Faber'sc ommendation. Faber had in 1928 also suggested ac antata to mark the beginning of the new university. Fort he promotion celebration in 1946, an ew cantata hadb een created( libretto:T om Kristensen, music: Knud Jeppesen). Unknown photographer,p hotograph from the Aarhus University Historya rchive.⁴

1953: Historyo nt he Agenda
Seven years later,when Aarhus University celebrated its 25 years anniversary,the set up was identical, with speechesa nd the promotion of honorary professors. However,itwas alsodifferent.The party lasted for threedaysfrom September 11 to September 13,1953, with the university campus turned into afestive area with  "Fotosf ra Indvielses-o gP romotionsfesten 1946" [Photosf rom the inauguration and promotion festivities 1946]. https://auhist.au.dk/showroom/galleri/begivenheder/indvielses-ogpromo tionsfest11.september1946/fotosfraindvielses-ogpromotionsfesten1945/ (15.2.2021). shootingb ooths, carrousels and bands playing.A nd the university had decided that the jubilee should includethe publication of its first official history.The author was Andreas Blinkenberg(1893Blinkenberg( -1982, professor of Romanphilologyand a formerrector of the university.The task had obviouslynot been easy and, in the preface, Blinkenbergexplained thathehad chosen to write an institutionalstory, despite running the risk thatthis approach would resultinarather 'abstract' and 'dry' history.The alternativew ould have been an anecdotal history focusing on the individuals who "embodied the ideas and made history," frequentlyi nd ramatic situations, as he wrote.⁵ Blinkenberg′sc hoice might echo his position among the first five employed in 1928.With abackground in the arts and humanities, it is not surprising that he showed most knowledge of the changes within the faculty of humanities, while developments within the faculties of medicine,law and economics and theology weredescribed in less detail. Anumber of statistics wereincluded that underpinned the impression of auniversity that had grown more and faster than predicted. Al ist of employees (which did not include the first woman, the laboratory assistant and engineer Ingrid Beck, employed in 1936) and the inclusion of the most importantl awsa nd regulations completed this image.
Despite his desire to leave personal conflicts aside, Blinkenbergm entioned how the personal interests and personalities of his colleagues had influenced the design of the courses. "In these cases, history was definitelyaresult of the men, their temperament,ambitionsand otherlimitations in their outlook," he wrote.⁶ These personal conflicts and tensions had intensified duringt he years 1931-1934,before the final approval of the humanities coursesbythe state authorities and the subsequent appointment of the university'sfirst tenured professors.Tensions rose especiallya mong those who werea mong the Aarhus "faculty pioneers" but still feared theirj obs wereu nder threat from external applicants. In the end, though,e verybodyh ad been workingf or the same goal: the founding of an independent university with four faculties.A nd the perceivedt hreat never materialized, as all seven of thosewho had first been employed as lecturers were now being promoted to professors.⁷ Blinkenberg′sc omments and his selection of narrativesm ade me curious. Which opaque -untold -stories was he referringt o? How did these subtexts connect,c ross or challenget he institutional narrative which he had been composing?Blinkenberg′snarrative was taken to heart by the rector of the university, the professor in Danishl anguageP eter Skautrup (1896Skautrup ( -1982, in his remarks which openedt he anniversary festivities in 1953.S kautrup simply held that "The need wast here -the university had to come," adding thatn ames were not necessary: "We all know who they were -and some are even present today." Whatr eallym attered, accordingt oS kautrup, was the spirit of unity, the will to fight -and the massive publicsupport,which had made wealthybusiness people and local citizensdonate money and valuables,evenbefore university teaching[ Universitetsundervisningen iJ ylland]h ad become ar eality.⁸

Storylines and Contestations: Using and Doing History
Rector Skautrupw as not the first who used history to consolidatet he imageo f AarhusUniversity.Since the very first days of the campaign for asecond Danish university at the end of the 19 th century,history had served as an important tool for its advocates.⁹ As tory about the future university'sg enesis had alreadye ntered the appendixt oa1925 parliamentary report on the possibilities of establishing au niversity in Jutland. Rootsw eret raced back to the Renaissance, when several Danish kingsh ad supported the idea of au niversity located in the later provinces of Schleswiga nd Holstein. However,n othing came of it, and during the next two centuries, several proposals wereput forward for aDanish 'academyofh igher learning' to be located in the city of Viborg, an administrative nexus with ahighdensity of lawyers, pastors and teachers.The Copenha-genFireof1728, which hit the University of Copenhagen hard, initiallymade this idea an attractive one. Nevertheless, the decision was made to rebuild and restructure the university infrastructure in Copenhagen (dating back to 1479), since the idea of moving the university to Jutland had raised toom uch opposition.
By 1925,the arguments for establishing asecond Danish university werepresented in the aforementioned appendix. They referred to the importance of bringing Danish "Bildung" to the border region between Germanya nd Denmark; the need to createabetter educational balance between Copenhagen and the rest of the country;the advantagesofhaving two competingacademic environments to  Beretning om Jubilaeums-ogPromotionsfesten [Report on the jubilee festivities in the Aarhus University.R eport for the academic year 1953/54.p .1 9]. https://auhist.au.dk/fileadmin/www. auhist.au.dk/filer/Fest_-_Jubilaeums-_og_Promotionsfesten_1953.pdf (14. 2. 2021).  See the list of publicationsi nB linkenberg, Aarhus Universitet( cf. note 5), pp. 219-221. drive scientific development; and the over-enrolment of students at Copenhagen Universityafter the war.Especiallythe Faculty of Medicine was sufferingfrom a lack of facilities and teachers in the mid-1920s, but studies within the humanities werea lso high in demandd ue to ag rowingn eed for highs choolt eachers.¹⁰ Akey figure in this long processwas Victor Albeck (1869 -1933), chief obstetrician at the Birth Clinic in Aarhus. As amemberand, from 1926 onwards,chair of Universitets-Samvirket, [The University Cooperative]hewas pivotal in the process of lobbying among local politicians and business men to bring the university to Aarhus. Albeck published an expanded version of the 1925 ministerial account,f ocusing on the arguments for establishing af aculty of medicine in Aarhus.¹¹ In 1929,A lbeck and another of the first five Aarhus employees, the associate professor in German Christen Møller,cut the long history shortand focused on the latest developments in ap amphlet,which alsoi ncluded clippingsf rom the parliamentary debates.I tw as as tory about ad ifficult beginning,w hich also involved the disappointment when the original dream of an ew university with afaculty of medicine as its corehad to be abandoned for financial and political reasons,a sw ell as due to academic opposition from the faculty of medicine at the University of Copenhagen. The plannedm edicine facultyw as replaced by much cheaper foundational and privatec ourses in philosophya nd modernl anguages. Albeck′sa nd Møller′ss tory was also one of local support and trust from the city council, the inhabitants of Aarhus and wealthybusiness people, and it described how difficulties and skepticism wereo vercome.¹² Albeck died af ew months before the inauguration of the first university building in September 1933,but others werereadytocontinue the history-writing and to ensuret hath is and their contributions weren ot forgotten. This inner circle of authors included Albeck'scomrade in arms, the Copenhagen-based professor of medicine Knud Faber , local politician and membero ft he DanishP arliamentf or the Social-Democratic Party Axel Sneum (1879 -1958), and, behind the scenes, another Copenhagen-based professor,h istorian Erik Arup (1876 -1951), as well as Erling Stensgård( 1876Stensgård( -1966, head librarian at AarhusS tate Library. As wasm entioned by the Social-Democratic major of the city of Aarhus, Svend Unmack-Larsen (1893-1965 in his speech at the inauguration of the main buildingi nS eptember 1946,s everal historicaln arrativesa bout the coming-into-being of AarhusU niversity had recentlyb een published.T he authors weret he very members of the above-mentioned inner circle. Three publications stood out in Unmack-Larsen'ss peech. Among them were two memoirs: The memoirs of Knud Faberf rom 1946 weree ntitled Opbygningen af Aarhus Universitet [The creation of AarhusU niversity]. And the memoirso fA xelS neum, published in 1946,b ore the title Da vi started Aarhus Universitet [When we started AarhusU niversity].¹³ The two men had been positioned very differentlyi nthe creation process. Faberwas located in Copenhagen with close ties to the faculty of medicine,the government and the ministry of education. Sneum was aSocial Democratic member of Parliament and had close connections to the city council. It is hardlys urprising thatt heirv ersions of the founding story differed. While Knud Faber had written from an elitist academic perspective about the negotiations at the Universityo fC openhagen and at the ministry of education, Axel Sneum had taken apopularapproach, stressing the good will of the city council and the inhabitants of Aarhus. In contrast to Faber'sd escription of the importance of patience, caution and networking, Sneum accentuated the shrewdness of the local decision makers when it short-circuited and sped up the approval processt hrough various methods like paying as ummer visit to the King at his summer residence, which was located outside Aarhus.¹⁴ In at hird publication also from 1946 and with the title Danmarks nyeU niversitet. Et overskue [Denmarks new university.A no verview], the future rector Peter Skautrupp resented an institutional approach, based on the university yearbooks and legal documents.¹⁵ One issue which touched two related questions caused strongdisagreement around 1946,t hough: namelyt he question who had, in 1927,m anaged to steer the ship through the treacherous wavesc aused by af inancial crisis, ac hange of government and by skepticism, if not direct resistance, from the faculty of medicine at Copenhagen?And which had been the decisive argument for the ultimate success, that is the founding of Aarhus university? ica,t he Aarhus University Yearbook in 1933.A tb oth occasions, Stensgård presented himself as the man, who had come up with ap roposal, which had led straight to the establishment of Aarhus University. Accordingt ot his narrative, Stensgård had publiclya ired his idea at ad inner party in June 1927 which had marked the 25-year anniversary of Aarhus State Library.¹⁶ Stensgård′sdescription contrasted with how Albeck and Møllerhad depicted the events in their 1929 version of the earlyhistory of Aarhus University. In their contribution, they claimed that it was professor Erik Arup, who had cherished considerable sympathyf or the idea of as econd university in Aarhus, and who ultimatelyh ad managed to transform the various loose ideas suggested by, among others, the head librarian in the preceding years, into as erious and coherent plan. The idea was to give up the plan for am edicals chool and begin with privateu niversity tuition in modern languages and philosophya nd then graduallyg ain state approval and funding.¹⁷ Erling Stensgård'sc laim to fame, though, was partiallys upported by Axel Sneum and Peter Skautrup in 1946.T oS neum, the decisive argument had been awish to relievethe University in Copenhagen from an overload of new students through the creation of elementaryt eachingi np hilosophy, Danisha nd modernl anguages in Aarhus upon the proposal by Stensgårda nd laterp icked up in the press by Arup. Skautrup seemed to agree with this chronology.¹⁸ Head librarian Stensgårdt ook this as an acknowledgement of his key role and sent his anonymousr eview of Skautrup's1 946 book for al ocal newspaper to Erik Arup.¹⁹ Arup'sreplyletter shows that the discussion on who had pioneered the idea that gotthe ball rollingt owardsthe future state approval of the university in 1931 also mattered to him. In his reply, Arup did not dispute that Stensgårdh ad come up with the idea of introductory courses in modern languages, thereby acceptingt hate stablishing af aculty of medicinei nA arhus was not a possibilityatthatmoment.However,Arup stressed in his response to Stensgård, that Stensgårdhad not mentioned establishingaone-year philosophycourse. Instead, he himself, Erik Arup, had done so, and this had been the real game changer.²⁰ Because, the approval of this course by the state authorities meant  Stensgård, 25.9.1946. an approval of university teachingi nA arhus, as the introductory course in philosophy[ filosofikum]w as ap reconditionf or university studies at all faculties. The importance of the matter led Arup to send copies of his replyt oS tensgård to Knud Faberand to Peter Skautrup -as well as to the chair of the board of Aarhus University, Carl Holst-Knudsen (1886-1956. The latter had, also in 1946, publishedatext on the collaboration between city and university in the early years of Aarhus University.²¹ Arup'sd ecision to circulate copies of his correspondence with Stensgårdm ight have prompted Faber to informA rup in late September 1946 thath eh ad sought to set the record straight in his own version of the story.F aber′so pinion wast hat Erling Stensgård had not playedarole of anyi mportance in the founding of the university "regardlessw hat he thinks."²² Faberhad expressed this view alreadyin1932inabooklet about Aarhus University'sp asta nd present.²³ In 1953, Andreas Blinkenberginhis 25-year anniversary history would share the honor between Arup and Stensgårdwithout delving into whether the courses in modern languages or the philosophycourse had been more important.²⁴ With this, it could have been expected that that the dispute was settled and would attract no further attention. But quitet he opposite wast he case. In 1978,GustavAlbeck (1906-1995, professor in Danishlanguageand literature at AarhusUniversity,decided to set the record straight.Inanew history of AarhusUniversity,marking its 50thanniversary,GustavAlbeck basedhis version of the story on his father'sprivatearchive:onthe correspondence of the late Victor Albeck, the obstetrician in Aarhus who had in the 1920sa ctively lobbied for am edical school. In al etter from January 1927,a bout five months before the above-mentioned dinner party for the jubilee of Aarhus StateL ibrary,K nud Faberr ecommended Victor Albeck to abandon the idea of am edicals chool, replace it with public lectures within the humanities, and push the city council to build as mall auditorium to host the lectures. Faberconsidered that there was a whole series of Copenhagen emeriti professors who gladlyw ould travel to Aarhus to teachs uch public lectures.I nc aseV ictor Albeck was interested, he  Holst-Knudsen, Carl: Nogle BemaerkningeromF orholdet imellem Aarhus kommune og Aarhus Universitet.I n: Acta might as wella pproach Erik Arup to whom Knud Faberh ad spoken and who would be happy to assist in further developing the idea.²⁵ From another letter from July 1927,i tb ecame clear,t hatE rikA rup was not onlye ager to see as econd Danish university, but also eager to find ap osition for the philosopher Kort K. Kortsen (1882Kortsen ( -1939. Kortsen was by that time holding at emporary position as al ectureri nD anishl anguagea tt he University of Reykjavik. His term wasn earing its end and because of his health, ar enewal was not an option. As am embero ft he Danish-Islandic foundation overseeing Danishl anguagea nd culturet eaching in Reykjavik, Arup felt obliged to help Kortsten to getanew job. He thereforer ecommended Victor Albeck to hire Kortsen to teach philosophyc ourses in Aarhus. Albeck followed the advice.T he board of university teachinginJ utlandinvited Kortsen for an interview and succeeded to persuade him to apply, although there was no pension and the position would -again -be temporary.²⁶ GustavAlbeck′sreference in 1978 to the privatecorrespondence between his father Victor Albeck and Knud Faberthus supported anarrative which had been created yearsbefore by the inner circle of protagonists: It held that the university had had ad ifficult birth and that onlyamixture of local funding,s hrewdness plus ag ood instinct for the political game, intense networkinga nd ah andful of persistent advocates had made the start happen. However,eventhe letters between Albeck and Faber did not reallysolve the question of who had developed the decisive idea, and it is probablyfair to saythat Aarhus University had several committed fathers. Andi ti salsof air to state that this was not ac ompletelyu ntold or unknown history,s ince Stensgårdh ad claimed at several occasions that he had been the man with the bright idea. What had been untold, at least publicly, weret he reactions by Erik Arup and Knud Faber. This testifies to the affective part of the story.T ob er ememberedb yh istory mattered to all of them,r egardless of whether they made ap ublic claim or not.N evertheless, it was the 11 th of September 1928 which stood out as the date of foundation in all the above-mentioned publications, even if the festive inauguration of the main building on the 11 th of September 1946 would become areference for AarhusUni-versity′sl ater history.

Twisteda nd Entangled Academic Lives
On this September dayof1928, 68 students, four lecturers and one professor attended the inauguration of Universitetsundervisningen iJylland [university teaching in Jutland] together with the minister of education, the local initiators,a nd representativesfrom the University of Copenhagen and the Aarhus City Council. When the year was over,the number of students, who took classes on aweekly basis at the top floor at the Technical School, had risen to 78.²⁷ While the 1928 inauguration did not make headlines in nationaln ewspapers,i sw as, as Knud Faberc laimed in 1932,t he dayo fb irth of the university, "even if it was still far from fullyd eveloped";t he birth of its ties with the city of Aarhus, and the start for its new employees. As ag reetingt ot he new institution and as as tatement of its local importance,the city authorities had decoratedt he streets with flags.²⁸ Before grantingits acceptanceofthe new higher learning institution in Aarhus that would ultimatelyl ead to the inauguration in September 1928,the Danish ministry of education had demanded, that the Copenhagen faculty of philosophyapproved the plans. Thiswas not as easy as it might have seemed, and the members of the faculty went through highlye motional discussions before they accepted the proposal to set up elementaryu niversity teachinga tA arhus with a3 2:30 vote. The critics warned against an undermining of academic standards, if research assistants were assigned to do the teaching job instead of university professors with asubstantial academic record. But the majority thoughtitaforeseeable risk, due to the privateand local support of the courses,with no prospect of state funding (yet). And the risk should further be reduced by establishing the condition that the candidatesfor the teachingpositions in Aarhus should undergo an academic selection process.²⁹ As ar esult, as election committee was set up comprisingthree Copenhagen professors for each of the five open teaching positions in Aarhus. The position for English languaget eaching stood out,s ince two of the five applicants for this position werew omen. Behind the scenes,V ictor Albeck shared his opinion with KnudF aber.H ef ound that the two femalea pplicants Grethe Hjort (1903 - Skautrup, Danmarks nyeU niversitet( cf. note 15), p. 11.  Faber,A arhus Universitet (cf. note 23), p. 20;s ee also Skautrup, Danmarks nyeU niversitet (cf. note 15), p. 11.  Blinkenberg, Aarhus Universitet (cf. note 5), pp. 21-22. 1967) and Johanne Stockholm³⁰ were "presumablythe best qualified" for the position, as they werealso recommended by the renownedlinguist Otto Jespersen, professor at the University of Copenhagen.³¹ One week later, al etterf rom history professor Erik Arup to Victor Albeck mentioned twoo thera pplicants,b oth werem en. The first wasT orstenD ahl (1897-1968),a na ssistant professor at the Copenhagen English department.T he second was an Englishman named O. T. Pryce/Price³²,who in Arup'so pinion had put himself in an impossible position by swapping his British citizenship for aGerman, despite his anti-German writings. Arup also knew that one of the professors from the English department in Copenhagen had voted for Torsten Dahl and that one of the others might have voted for Grethe Hjort, who, like Dahl, held at emporary position at the University of Copenhagen. Athird faculty member had votedfor "the Englishman".³³ In ad raft for an update to Knud Faber, who was on vacation in France, Erik Arup wrote: "Please find some news from the battlefield".Inthe letter,Arup repeated his opinion that the British professor was non-eligible. It thereforew ould be "better to pick Torsten Dahl."³⁴ The selection committee handed in its recommendation at the end of August 1928.B yt hen, the numbero fa pplicants for the English teachingp osition had risen to five.A ll three committee members agreed that the four Danes were talented scholars with sound teachinge xperience, good languages kills and thus could be considered as "academic prospects." However,s ince none of them had written anything of ac haracter enablingt he members to properlya ssess theira cademic prowess, the committee felt forced to conclude thata ny selection on these grounds would be unfair and arbitrary.Given the temporary nature of the position, the committee′sm ajority,which consisted of the professors Brusendorff and Bøgholm, opted for Pryce. They argued that Pryce would bring something to Aarhus that had so far not existed in Copenhagen, namelyteaching by anative speaker.This argument was contested by the committee'sthird mem- ber,p rofessor Bodelsen. Hiso pinionw as that academic positions in Denmark should be filled with Danes. Andh ef eared thatP ryce'sl ack of proficiencyi n Danishw ould cause problems when teaching elementaryE nglish. Once again stressingt he temporary nature of the position, Bodelsen suggested to vote for Torsten Dahl because of his good exam results, languageskills and his teaching experience.³⁵ Postponing the decision until September wasnot acceptable to the board of "University Teaching in Jutland" in Aarhus, who had decided to start the courses by the beginning of September 1928.S omething happened that must have overruled the committee'sr esolution right on time,because at the board meetingon the final dayo fA ugust,T orsten Dahl wasl isted as the new lecturer in English. Dahl was granted the lowest salary of all the new employees, and in contrast to the other men on the list of employees, his first name was not added until later.This could be acoincidenceoritcould be due to the controversy surrounding the appointment and the fact that the decision was made at the last minute.³⁶

Careerso nt he Move
Contrary to what Arup had told Faber, none of the two femaleapplicants,Grethe Hjort and Johanne Stockholm, weretaken into consideration by the members of the selection committee. The gold medal from the University of Copenhagen, which Grethe Hjort had receivedfor her master'sthesis at the ageof23, was obviouslynot enough to assess her academic skills. Shortlythereafter,both women left Denmark. Hjort travelled to the United Kingdom, wheres he earned aP hD from Newnham Collegef or women before being appointed as Pfeiffer research fellow  at Girton Collegef or women in Cambridge (UK). In England, Grethe Hjortc hanged her name to Greta Hort and became aB ritish citizen. Hjort/Hort then pursued an international career which took her to Australia as rector of the Women'sCollegeatthe University of Melbourneand later to Prague, whereshe studied Old Testament texts and worked as atranslator,collaborating with her life partner, the geographer Julie Moscheles . In 1939, Moschelesh ad escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia to takeu paposition as professor at the University of Melbourne. The two women had met through theirinvolvement in the Czechoslovak exile branch of the Red Cross So-  Københavns Universitet, Det humanistiskef akultet 1920-1975,j ournalsager1 920I T-1940, kasse21, journalsagIT-1UniversitetetiJylland, laeg:Ansøgninger 1928:IndstillingAage Brusendorff and NielsB øgholm, 20.8.1928IndstillingA ageB odelsen, 23.8.1928.  Forhandlingsprotokol (cf. note 26).

Constructing and Reconstructing History
ciety which Greta Hort presided.³⁷ In 1957,after the death of Julie Moscheles, Hort returned to Denmark as Grethe Hjort.S he took up ap osition as lecturer in English at Aarhus University and was appointed full professor in 1958. TorstenDahl became her closest colleagueuntil her death in 1967. Meanwhile, Johanne Stockholm had travelled to the United States,whereshe gained aPhD from Bryn Mawr College, awomen'sl iberal arts college. She remained in the U.S. and taught for 28 years as an associate professor at Sweet Briar Collegei nV irginia, aw omenonlyc olleges pecializing in horse riding.
The trajectory of both women was similar to manyofthe first generations of femalea cademics who left their country of birth to pursue their researchi nterests abroad. An analysis of the studentsw ho attended Girton and Newnham women'sc olleges before 1939 shows that the majorityo ft hese female scholars, like Stockholm and Hjort,l ater took up positions within university and college teaching.³⁸ Accordingt oT orsten Dahl, who wrotea no bituary for Grethe Hjort, she had left her home country because "she could not see an academic career for herself in Denmark."³⁹ Dahl honored Hjort'se fforts to spread knowledge of Commonwealth literature in Denmark, her expertise in Shakespeare'sp lays and her research into English poetry from the Middle Ages. At the coreo f Dahl′so bituary was ap ersonal portrait of Hjort, whereh eu nderlined how her life reflected the conflicts between Anglo-Saxon and Danisha cademic cultures. Hjort had prioritized efficiency over academic freedom, he wrote; she had been a lone wolf, but also enjoyed the companyo fo thers; she had been self-centered, but at the samet ime curious and helpful. She had demanded al ot of bothh erself and others and sacrificed her sleep to find time to write. An important character trait was her willingness to fight for recognition of her academic competences "without being aggressive." Dahl here referred to Grethe Hjort′slifelong effort to establish herself within academia.⁴⁰ These effortshad sometimes led to disappointments that Hjort could not shake off with asmile. Dahl′stext was eloquent and balanced without hiding some of the tensions in his friendship with Hjort.
The memoirs of af ormer student at the department describe the sometimes strainedrelationship between the two English professors,byrecounting how energetically Grethe Hjort,i nc ontrastt oD ahl, who had at endency to fall asleep duringc lasses, would teach her courses.A fter manyy ears abroad, her English languageskills weresuperiortoT orsten Dahl's: "Dahl obviouslyhad to swallow af ew bitter pills after her arrival."⁴¹ In 1946,Dahl was decorated with the Order of the Dannebrogbythe King of Denmark. As was custom, he had written an autobiographical statement for the occasion. In it,her ecalledhis childhood, wife and familylife and his academic career,conceding that he had suffered from writer'sblock. "My academic publicationsc ould easilyb eo verlooked, since they are so few," Dahl wrote, adding that he could have gained an ame as an author if writinga cademic texts had come as easilyt oh im as composings ongsf or festive occasions.D ahl admitted that he had been givent he chance of al ifetime when appointed as al ecturer in Aarhus in 1928.A nd he stressed that all thath ad mattered to him ever since had been teachinga nd supervisingh is students.⁴² Dahl did not mention -and might not have known -that his initial appointment had not been asmooth ride. Nor did he mention thathis promotion to full professor in 1934 had been contested by the Copenhagen faculty of philosophy because of his limited academic merits. By contrast,t he selection committee had supported Dahl′sc andidature, pointing out that he had spent most of his time further developing the English coursesa nd that this should be considered amerit in its ownright.Fromacorrespondence between Dahl and twomembers of the selection committee we learn that Dahl had an unfinished habilitation thesis in the drawer.When thingsw ered ragging on, he began to worry about his chances.T he two professors,w ho werea lso his former teachers,w ent to great lengths in order to comfort him. One of them even brokehis oathofconfidentiality to inform Dahl about the discussion within the faculty.⁴³ Ultimately, the recommendation of his candidature wasonlyaccepted by the facultyofphilosophy  Aarhus university archive,T orsten Dahl, privatea rchive:N ielsB øgholm to Torsten Dahl, 30.8.1934;see also Aage Bodelsen to Torsten Dahl, 11.7. 1934;see also the lettersent by the Konsistorium from2 9. 6. 1934 to the Undervisningsministeriet on postponingt he decision, and the minutes from 15.10. 1934 regarding the concerns of the faculty members: Undervisningsministeriet,2 .d epartement,1.k ontor,J ournalsager 1916Undervisningsministeriet,2 .d epartement,1.k ontor,J ournalsager -1962 because there was arush to ensure that sevenprofessors were in place as acondition for the final state approval of the faculty of humanities in Aarhus. ⁴⁴ We do not know how Grethe Hjort viewed her life or academic trajectory,nor how she experiencedh er return to Aarhus in 1957.S he left ap rivate, but classified archive.A ccordingtothe memoirs of her abovecited former student and to Torsten Dahl'so bituary, she seems to have had some difficult years. Maybe because she herself wasadifficult person; maybeb ecause the universityw as far from accustomed to femalep rofessors,a sH jortw as onlyt he second woman to be nominated for af ull professorship. In 1965, Grethe Hjort finallys eems to have receivedb roader acknowledgementf or her achievements as she was both awarded the prestigious TageaB randt scholarship and was decorated by the King.⁴⁵ Ironically, after all these yearso ff ightingf or recognition, the royal administration forgott or egister her decoration and she never completed the customary autobiographical description which would depict her.

Lines of Thought
As was the case with the story about who had fathered the ultimatei dea which eventuallyl ed to the creation of Aarhus University,t he story about the twisted and entangled academic liveso fT orsten Dahl and Grethe Hjort does not yield itself for af inal conclusion. It is highlyp robable thatt herei sm oret os ay about whyD ahl wasp referred to Hjorta nd the other three applicantsi n1 928. And without adoubt,thereismore to find out about the time Hjort spent in Australia, Czechoslovakia and later in Aarhus. The fragmented, incompleteo rc lassified archivesd on ot supplyt he answers (so far). But the dust-covered brown archival boxeswith theirauraofthe past are able to engagethe researcher′sfantasy and imagination to fill the gaps and to literally "think outside of the box," as aD anish expression goes.⁴⁶ Iwill therefore leave my protagonists aside and return to the choice Andreas Blinkenbergf aced in the early1 950es after he had accepted to write the official  Københavns Universitet, Det humanistiskef akultet 1920 -1975,j ournalsager1 920I T-1940, kasse2 2, journalsagI T, laeg Aarhus 1934:I ndstillinga fT orsten Dahl, 11.6. 1934 history of the first 25 years of Aarhus University. Shouldhechoose apersonal or an institutional approach?B linkenbergo pted for the latter,w hich seemed to make good sense.M embers from the 'pioneering generations' weres till around and it might not have helpedAarhus University′sbranding,ifBlinkenberg′shistory had unveiled the personal conflicts, ambitions and/or incompetence of the founding fathersa nd earlys taff. There was simply no reason to step on someone'st oes at that moment.B linkenbergh ad his agenda as had all the others who contributed to the narrativesabout Aarhus University.From the start,history was at ool and an argument for the creation of auniversityi nJ utland, and it remained central for the justification of anew Danish university.A tfirst,history was literallymade by those who werepresent at the inauguration of the teaching courses in September 1928.B yt he time of the inauguration of the main university building in September 1946,t he university′sh istory had been abundantly written by members of the pioneering generation. It was finallygiven official approval with the publication of Blinkenberg'sj ubilee history in 1953. In 1978, when the university celebratedits 50 years anniversary,the publication of letters exchanged by Victor Albeck and Knud Faberadded another layertothis, by now, official story about adifficult and even dramatic beginning.The approach that I use challenges some of the silences,gapsa nd opacities in these narrativeswith the help of an affective and gendered readingo fi nstitutional as well as private archiveso fs ome of the university'sf ounding fathers. The overall purpose is to reflect on methods of how to connect institutional history with the history of everydayl ife in academia.
My chapter contains twoe xamples of how personal livesa nd experiences werei nterwoven with the political and institutional structures.M yf irst case shows how the writing of university history was imbued with personal interests and ambitionsa nd how decisionsw erem ade behind closed doors to sanction one version and silence another.T ot he professors KnudF aber and Erik Arup, librarian Erling Stensgård'ss hare in the story was at best minimal, since he had not understood the rules of the game.
My second caseshows the genderedand affective jugglingwith academicexpectations. The status of the new university hinged on the academic qualifications of its lecturers and professors,a st hey wered efined and sanctionedb y the members of the faculty of philosophya tC openhagen University.T he case shows that in 'real life',t he doingso fa cademia gave wayf or interpretations. In this process, networks and timing as well as gender,q ualifications and life stories gained importance. Ac lose readingo fh ow the first lecturer and later the two professors at the English department wheree mployed shows how academic livesc ould be twisted and entangled and how this resulted in different academic chronologies: TorstenD ahl earned his professorship in Denmark earlyinlife, Grethe Hjort gothers late. Dahl drew on his network and developed strategies to compensate for his 'writers block',while Hjort made use of her international experiencesw hen fighting for academic acknowledgement.
None of these stories were considered important to be included in the official university history.This is not surprising,since the decision on what becomes part of an official, institutional history and what does not enter it can be understood as astructural phenomenon built on power,politics and gender. By its very nature, the seemingly non-spectacular routine of selecting and employing the first staff for the incipient university had, as other controversies surrounding the earlyd aysi nA arhus, to be invisiblea nd its discovery was and is left to the re-reading and creative imagination of laterresearchers. During this process, Ih aveg raduallycome to understand university archivesa sak ind of holygrails loadedwith emotions and affection,power and politics, the told and the untold stories.This is exactlyw hy the stories they contain ring so familiar.⁴⁷ My approach from ac lose readinga nd genderp erspective has focused on those moments when the archival material became 'affectively involving' or even glowing and thereby related to my own academic experience.⁴⁸ Following the feminist theoretician Maria Tamboukou'sneo-materialist readings of archival work, we should not expectthe story to layinthe archive,justwaitingtobetold by the researcher.R ather,the story and thus university (jubilee) history is ab ecomingo rp otentiality,aproducto ft he researcher'so wn involvement and spatio-temporal rhythms.⁴⁹ Does ag endereda nd affectiver eading changet he history of Aarhus University in asubstantial way? The answer is both no and yes. It does not changethe meta-narrative about adifficult beginning and a 'glorious' result. But it changes the waythe story is told by moving the focus from the non-personal, institutional and political towards focusing on how universities are done in the course of their everydayr outine and, thus, by demonstrating that individual views and passions, conflicts and emotions werec entral to the development of the second Danishu niversity.