Education and Academic Reflexivity through the lens of Student Mobilities and Global South/Global North encounters

Abstract (English)

In this panel, we invite contributions that explore critical global challenges through the lens of student mobilities (Woldegiorgis 2024).
In a knowledge-based world the number of higher-education students learning outside their countries of origin is expected to rise to 22,000,000 by 2027 (Kigotho 2020). In particular, the internationalisation of higher education is crucial for repositioning Global South for economic growth. Thus students increasingly cross the borders in search of knowledge in another country for acquiring global skills and languages and becoming highly trained professionals. We welcome contributions that explore the multiple and hybrid identities of international students and professionals in interconnected and globalized worlds. We are looking for contributors with reflexive attitudes grounded in empirical experiences who will engage with their own research processes, while also interrogating the assumptions and power relations embedded in the politics of knowledge production. Here are some of the questions that could be addressed. How do the graduates navigate between the transformation of the Self as a creative individual process and their Global South belongings? How established local élites not trained abroad react to international élites? Which are the effects of student mobility in the Global North in terms of epistemic justice, inclusivity and representation? How corporal transformation as well as change in dress and the acquisition of the rules of Global-North sexuality, such as monogamy, impact family life and belongings? How to engage with the interrelated dimensions of methodological, epistemological and theoretical challenges of conducting research on student mobilities for scholars trained abroad or not?