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Academic Mobilities and Immobilities Network

Key output: AMIN journal special issueLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

'Stuck and sticky in mobile academia: reconfiguring the im/mobility binary'

AMIN culminated in a special issue of Higher Education, a prestigious journal in the higher education research field. The special issue, edited by Charikleia Tzanakou and Emily F. Henderson, included contributions from academic mobilities scholars worldwide, and unpacked the binary construction of academics as either mobile or stuck, by considering how scholars may be both mobile and stuck. [View special issue pageLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window]

About AMIN - Academic Mobilities and Immobilities Network

AMIN was a cross-departmental research network that was funded by Warwick's Institute for Advanced Study and Faculty of Social Sciences between 2016-2018. The convenors were Emily F. Henderson (Education Studies) and Xuemeng Cao (formerly Education Studies), Heike Behle (formerly Institute for Employment Research), Stephanie Schnurr (Applied Linguistics) and Charoula Tzanakou (formerly PAIS).

AMIN arose from mutual interests of the convenors on the mobilities of academics and doctoral researchers, with a specific slant on critical perspectives on mobility. This network brought together academic and non-academic staff from Warwick working in the area of academic mobility and immobility. The network drew on existing expertise within Warwick, as well as connections from other universities in the UK. The network drew together different strands of mobility research, in order to produce a more connected and holistic view of academic mobility. Some of the questions that were addressed included: who is (not) moving, why and how? How do different mobilities intersect (e.g. short term and long term, doctoral students and academics)? What are the impacts of academic mobility on employment, the academic profession and international knowledge production? How can we research and theorise academic mobility? How can we contribute to models of best practice for funded mobility? What are the drivers and barriers to mobility? How do new forms of ICT support mobility? Are patterns of mobility and immobility linked to gender?

AMIN's event record

19 June 2019, Co-hosted AMIN & Centre for Applied Linguistics Seminar

  • Move or Perish? The Transnational Mobility of Researchers in Swiss Academia: Marie Sautier, University of Lausanne
  • Stuck and sticky in Thailand: Expatriate academics’ narratives of career immobility and mobility as baggage, James Burford, La Trobe University; Thornchanok Uerpairojkit, King’s College London

13 March 2019, Co-hosted AMIN & Centre for Education Studies Seminar

  • National professional contexts and their consequences for international mobility in academia: exploring academics’ roots and routes, Toma Pustelnikovaite, Abertay University (presenting); Shiona Chillas, University of St Andrews

12 September 2018, AMIN symposium at BAICE (British Association for International and Comparative Education) Conference, University of York, Symposium convened by Emily Henderson: 'Querying the Mobility Imperative: Critical Approaches to Academic Mobilities Research'

  • 'A PhD in motion: a critical academic mobilities approach to researching short-term mobility schemes for doctoral students', Emily Henderson, University of Warwick
  • 'Enhancing the employability of international students: towards a more complex understanding of Chinese students in UK universities', Xuemeng Cao, University of Warwick
  • 'Ticking the "other" box: positional identities of East Asian academics in UK universities, internationalisation and diversification', Terri Kim, UEL
  • 'The working lives of foreign-born scholars in British academia: a note on inclusion', Toma Pustelnikovaite, Abertay University

22 June 2018, AMIN Meet the Editors Event

  • Professor Rosemary Deem (journal: Higher Education) and Professor Susan Robertson (Globalisation, Societies and Education)

6 June 2018, AMIN and the Professional and Academic Discourses (PAD) Network, Applied Linguistics co-hosted seminar

  • 'Discrimination and Identity Work: the Role of Ethnic Identity and Silence', Dr Dulini Fernando, Warwick Business School

23 January 2018, AMIN and Institute for Employment Research: Employability and Academic Mobility

  • Enhancing the employability of international students: what are the stereotypes of Chinese international students, Xuemeng Cao, University of Warwick
  • The impact of a changing academic profession on career paths and aspirations, Dr Giulio Marini and Dr Celia Whitchurch, CGHE, UCL Institute of Education

27 November 2017, Creative Workshop - Academic mobility: snakes, ladders and flying carpets

  • Workshop lead – Mary Courtney

8 December 2017, AMIN symposium at Annual SRHE Conference (Convened by Charikleia Tzanakou): ‘Unraveling academic mobility: fresh frameworks of thought’

  • Charikleia Tzanakou looked at how (im)mobilities during and after doctoral experience affected career decisions of Greek natural scientists and engineers and raised issues of European project collaborations and academic inbreeding.
  • Terri Kim and Wilson Ng interrogated the positional identities and (im)mobile networks of East Asian academics in Britain.
  • Emily F. Henderson investigated academic mobility and suggested a conceptual proposal of mobilities through the analysis of two doctoral mobility schemes.
  • Toma Pustelnikovaite examined working lives of foreign born academics in British academia, looking at careers situated in localized professional structures rather than residing in individuals.
  • Marie Sautier explored the practices and discourses of international mobility in Swiss academia through mobile scientists’ accounts.

15 November 2017, AMIN & Centre for Education Studies, University of Warwick: 'Beyond student immobility: complicating a limiting discourse'

  • 'The non-linear mobilities of international students to UK Higher Education – resilience, moorings and academic hospitality', Josef Ploner, University of Hull
  • 'Moving beyond immobility: Local students’ narratives of undergraduate mobility' by Holly Henderson, University of Birmingham

3 July 2017, AMIN Conveners’ Round Table

  • In this round table event, the AMIN conveners presented their research-based perspectives on key issues of academic mobility, including the challenges that the events of the past year have presented for this field of research, and the urgent concerns which need to be addressed going forward.

23 May 2017, AMIN and IER (Institute for Employment Research) Research Seminar

  • "Academic mobilities and employability - different ways to gain international experiences", Eluned Jones (University of Birmingham) and Toni Wright (Newman University); Gaby Atfield (IER, University of Warwick)

8 March 2017, AMIN and SRHE’s International Research and Researchers Network International Women’s Day Symposium: “Gendering Academic Mobility: International Perspectives”

  • ‘Being women and being migrant: confronting double strangeness in UK higher education’, Thushari Welikala, Kings College London, UK
  • 'Inequality practices in the construction of international mobility as a selection criterion for assistant professor positions', Channah Herschberg, Radboud University, Netherlands
  • ‘The benefits of dual careers services for women working in academia or beyond: Evidence from EURAXESS projects (TOP III) and University of Copenhagen’, Mark de Vos, University of Copenhagen
  • ‘Provisions for dual career couples: addressing or reinforcing gender inequalities?’, Charoula Tzanakou, University of Warwick, AMIN co-convener.

16 February 2017, AMIN & PAD (Professional and Academic Discourse network, CAL) research seminar

  • “Gender and mobility in academic careers: Preliminary results from the DISCONEX project”, Johannes Angermuller, CAL

9 November 2016, AMIN and the CES Education Research Seminar Programme

  • "Academic Mobility and the Varieties of Academic Capitalism: a Comparative Perspective", Terri Kim, UEL

1 November 2016, Round table and networking event: "Academic mobility: Who is (not) moving and why?"

  • Poonam Dave (Warwick's Global Engagement Office) discussed her work in relation to internationalisation at home
  • Teresa MacKinnon (Modern Languages) discussed her research and practice in the area of virtual mobility
  • Ruth Dorrell (Warwick in Africa) discussed the Warwick in Africa scheme in relation to student and staff short-term mobility