Speakers

The symposium will bring together three invited speakers whose work engages with anarchist, libertarian and critical perspectives on education from complementary angles.
Their contributions will offer a combination of theoretical reflection, pedagogical insight and lived experience, fostering a rich and plural dialogue on the role of these principles in addressing current educational challenges.
Confirmed speakers include:

Henry Readhead (A.S. Neill Summerhill CIC, UK) 

Henry Readhead, the grandson of A.S.Neill, has been an integral part of the Summerhill School community for more than four decades. Over the years, he has contributed in a wide range of roles, including student, teacher, international ambassador, and Deputy Head, gaining a deep and holistic understanding of the school’s philosophy and day-to-day life. In addition to his work within the school, Henry serves as a director of the A.S.Neill Summerhill CIC and as a trustee of the A.S.Neill Summerhill Trust, helping to preserve and promote the school's educational ethos.

Henry specialises in supporting children’s cognitive, emotional, social, and physical well-being. His work focuses on creating safe, sincere, and nurturing living and learning environments. He also brings extensive experience in educational institution development and management, mentoring and training education professionals, human resources, business strategy, and providing guidance and consultancy to parents and organisations alike.

Janet M. Conway (Canada)

Dr. Janet M. Conway is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Brock University, where she held the Canada Research Chair in Social Justice (2008-2018) and was founder and Director of the Social Justice Research Institute. She held the Nancy Rowell Jackman Chair in Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University, 2019-21. In 2022, she was Senior Research Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin. She holds a PhD in Political Science from York University.

Her research has centred on transnational social justice movements under conditions of globalization, notably feminist, peasant and Indigenous peoples’ organizing, and their significance for social innovation, political thought, and democratic life in the face of contemporary crises. Her work has been published in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Italian and been supported by numerous research grants. 

She is author of more than fifty publications, including three books (eg. Edges of Global Justice, Routledge, 2013) and editor of three collections, most recently Cross-border Solidarities: Feminist Perspectives and Activist Practices, Rowman and Littlefield 2021. Her current research focuses on the gender politics of the resurgent right in Canada and world-wide, and its challenges to a feminist societal project for intersectional gender justice.

Prior to her academic career, she worked for a decade as a Toronto-based community advocate, organizer and popular educator and was a founder of the Metro Network for Social Justice. She went on to be a founder and chair of the Toronto Social Forum and active in Indigenous solidarity networks.

She is currently an independent researcher, writer, speaker, and educator based in Montréal-Tiohtià:ke.

Franz Steinberger (Germany)

My name is Franz Steinberger and I live now in Bruges in Belgium. I’ve been going to school for 55 years now, 33 of them as a teacher in Hamburg and Bremen and in teacher’s training. 

I went for physical and special education, trained for the blind, with a passion for theater, both directing and acting. I am convinced that open school methods work best for personality development by interest-based learning and individual pacing in the tradition of Célestin Freinet and Alexander Neill. I like thinking outside the box and have a very inclusive mindset in all directions. Seeing children relaxed and laughing and being able to make them laugh is all the motivation I need. I never tire of inspiring others and gently nudging people in the right direction.

As a half-Belgian born and raised in Germany I love chocolate, beer, sports, gardening, and above all music and drama.