Speakers at the 2025 Annual Events
(under construction)
Ingolfur Blühdorn is Professor for Social Sustainability and founder as well as Head of the Institute for Social Change and Sustainability (IGN) at the University for Economics and Business in Vienna. He is a political sociologist and socio-political theorist. His work explores the legacy of the emancipatory social movements since the early 1970s, their participatory revolution and the transformation of emancipatory politics over the past five decades. Having obtained his PhD (eco-social theory) from the University of Keele (UK), Blühdorn was Lecturer and Reader in Political Sociology in Leicester and at the University of Bath. He took up his Chair in Vienna in 2015. Contact: Ingolfur.Bluehdorn@wu.ac.at
Gina Ebner is Deputy Secretary General at the European Association for the Education of Adults. She has worked in adult education for many years and has a background as education and project manager, experience in multi-stakeholder and transnational environments, network building, curriculum and product development, knowledge management, team and project leadership. She also worked as a trainer in adult education. She was President of the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (now European Lifelong Learning Platform - LLLP) until 2013 and again between 2018 and 2020.
Uwe Gartenschlaeger has dedicated his career to advancing adult education on various levels, culminating in his role as director and chief executive of DVV International in March 2023. His extensive contributions as both a practitioner and policymaker have significantly impacted trainers and students across Europe, Asia, and Russia. Joining DVV in 1995, Gartenschlaeger served in multiple leadership roles, including country director for Russia and regional director for Central and Southeast Asia. His efforts have been pivotal in restructuring adult education systems and developing policies in partner countries. Notably, he managed training cycles for adult educators in Laos and Cambodia from 2015 to 2019, creating communities of practice that have inspired similar initiatives in other regions.
As deputy director of DVV, he developed standardized training curricula like "Curriculum globALE," now a UNESCO-recommended tool. In 2019, he was elected president of the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), where he advocated for the European Union’s New European Agenda for Adult Learning. Gartenschlaeger, who studied history, political science, and philosophy, is also passionate about fostering a culture of remembrance and reconciliation.
Angeliki Giannakopoulou is a Project Coordinator at the European Association for the Education of Adults. She holds an Integrated Master’s degree in Computer Engineering and Informatics and has followed certified training on Adult Education and Counseling while currently studying for her Masters degree on Gender Studies. Before her work in the EAEA she was a project manager and adult educator in Greece and her key areas of interest on ALE are digitalisation and media, safe public spaces (both physical and digital) gender, and intersectionality.
Raffaela Kihrer is Secretary General at the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA) and has extensive experience in advocacy and policy on adult learning and education at the European and international level, with a particular focus on citizenship and development. Since June 2022, she is also an elected Vice-President of the Lifelong Learning Platform which brings together all sectors of education. Her background is in International Development Studies, and she is a trained teacher in secondary school education and adult learning.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is President of the German Adult Education Association (DVV). She took over the office from Prof Rita Süssmuth in 2015 while she was still prime Minister of the state of Saarland. She became CDU General Secretary in 2018. In the same year, she was elected to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel as Federal Chairwoman of the CDU and held the office until January 2021. From 2019 to 2021, she was Federal Minister of Defence.
Marina Weisband, born in Ukraine in 1987, is a psychologist and expert in digital participation and education. From 2011 to 2012, she was political director of the Pirate Party Germany. Today, she continues to be politically active, is involved with the Green Party in the areas of digitalisation and education and fights for children's rights. From 2020-2022, she was co-chair of the digitalisation association D64 e.V.
She is the author of several books, e.g. ‘Wir nennen es Politik - Ideen für eine Zeitgemäße Demokratie’ (2013, Tropen); ‘Frag uns doch - Ein Jude und eine Jüdin erzählen aus ihrem Leben’ (2020, Fischer, with Eliyah Havemann), ‘Was uns durch die Krise trägt’ (2023, wbg, with Frido Mann) and ‘Die neue Schule der Demokratie’ (2024, Fischer).
Since 2014, she has been working on the aula project - now aula gGmbH - a concept for political education and liquid-democratic participation of young people in the rules and affairs of their schools and extracurricular organisations (www.aula.de)
She also has a regular radio column on Deutschlandfunk and advises on various aspects of digital change and democracy. She advises companies and film-makers on issues of diversity and participation.