Pernille is a doctoral student from Aarhus University, Faculty of Arts, Learning and Education, in Denmark, where she examines women's educational history based on the early academicization of women's professional educations from 1938 to 1968. More specifically, the project focuses on three higher educational programmes, which were established at Aarhus University for nurses (1938), home economics teachers (1945) and occupational and physiotherapists (1958), respectively. These higher educations were aimed at women with a professional background. Thus, this was the first time in Danish history that women could study a higher education at the university without having an academic background. The purpose of these programmes were multiple: to increase the academic level of the professions for the benefit of society, gain respect for women's work, and to equate women's access to the university with men.
Following narrative tracks in the archive, Pernille is particularly interested in the professional women student’s everyday life and experiences on the border between profession and university. The source material ranges from formal course descriptions and ministerial negotiations to women's applications, scrapbooks, and diaries. This material is analysed from a post-structuralist, post-humanist, neo-materialist, and affect studies point of view, drawing inspiration from feminist theorists such as Sara Ahmed, Rosi Braidotti, Karen Barad and Maria Tamboukou.
Pernille has a background in ethnology from University of Copenhagen (2016) with a special interest in gender studies and in the study of everyday life. She has worked as a research assistant in several research programmes at the University of Copenhagen, and has been employed at the Danish National Archives, the City Archives in Copenhagen and most recently at Gentofte Local Archives.
