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Transnational Academics: Mobilities, Immobilities, and Place

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Internationalization of Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the mobility of academics (professors, researchers, lecturers) across national borders, beginning with definitions to guide the discussion. The chapter addresses the issue of brain drain, reviewing existing research and the limitations of the concept of brain drain. Scholarship on academic mobility is analyzed to tease out the intricacies of what it means to be a transnational academic. Mobility and knowledge, and the relationship between them, are considered objects of inquiry in this chapter. The author argues that deterritorialization analyses that posit movement as being more important than place need also to acknowledge the continued significance of place for mobile academics. The chapter ends with a discussion about immobilities and forced mobility to highlight that mobility is neither possible, nor desirable for all.

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Larsen, M.A. (2016). Transnational Academics: Mobilities, Immobilities, and Place. In: Internationalization of Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53345-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53345-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-53344-9

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