The transnational and the individual: a life-history narrative in a Danish university context

Abstract

This article explores linguistic and cultural border crossing and the long-term consequences of transnational mobility on a professional international academic. It provides an in-depth qualitative analysis of a research interview which investigated the internationalisation background of a Danish academic within an English-speaking context. This individual’s personal history includes experiences abroad that have paved the way for a range of reflections and stance-takings that reflect larger scale political and ideological currents. The interviewee relates his biographical details in a way that shows a distancing from unreflected attachment to both the Danish and the USA contexts in which he has lived in the past. The interview also shows how personal circumstances and life histories can provide sources over time for ‘global reflexivity’.

Keywords:

• internationalisation
• globalisation of higher education
• qualitative discourse analysis
• life histories

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my interviewee, who made this research possible, to my academic colleagues at the CALPIU Centre for feedback as this article developed (Janus Mortensen, Hartmut Haberland, Bent Preisler, Spencer Hazel, Kamilla Kraft) and to the CALPIU Lab staff for assistance with data collection and transcription work (Kamilla Kraft, Lise Lopez Nielsen, Steffen Haurholm-Larsen, and Julie de Molade). This work was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research Humanities under the CALPIU project (2009–2013). I especially want to thank Catherine Montgomery and two anonymous referees for help in shaping this contribution and for their encouragement.