Trine Øland

Trine Øland is an Associate Professor in Educational Research at the Department of Communication, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. She serves as Head of Section for Education (2013-) and Head of the research group The History and Sociology of Welfare Work (2014-). Øland is also chairman of the Consortium for Education and professional welfare work and a member of the steering group for the Advanced Migration Studies research center (AMIS).

Her educational background includes a PhD in Educational Science (2007) and MA degrees in Educational Science & Political Science (1997) from the University of Copenhagen and University of Aarhus respectively. Her research spans multiple historical periods and focuses on the intersection of pedagogy, power, and inequality.

Øland's research explores how pedagogical concepts and efforts to develop, emancipate, integrate and socialize individuals create hierarchies between human beings. She examines progressive pedagogy across the 20th and 21st centuries, welfare work with refugees since the 1970s, and theoretical understandings of pedagogy as a relation where power appears in affective and geopolitical genres. Her work critically analyzes how dominance is sustained through institutionalized pedagogy while also documenting resistance and critique in educational encounters.

Her publication record shows consistent focus on welfare state pedagogy, with recent work examining colonial logics in Danish welfare systems and racial capitalism. Øland's research demonstrates an evolving trajectory from historical analyses of progressive pedagogy to contemporary critical examinations of welfare work with refugees and immigrants.

As an academic leader, Øland has supervised numerous PhD students whose work examines educational guidance, welfare work practices, intersectionality in marginalized housing areas, and affective economies in well-being pedagogies. She has led significant research projects including RESTORE (2021-2025), funded by The Independent Research Council Denmark, which constructs new narratives of the Danish welfare state through refugees' stories.

Øland leads the research group The History and Sociology of Welfare Work and is actively involved in the Consortium for Education and professional welfare work, a collaboration between University College Copenhagen and Section of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. Her work bridges historical analysis with contemporary critical perspectives on welfare state pedagogy and refugee integration.