Research project Swedish Humanities and the Challenges of Internationalization

Yet, the Swedish Humanities are often defined as a single homogenous unit, and often described in negative terms as not “international” enough and thus less adapted to contemporary academic competition, compared to other academic fields. But what does “internationalization” mean in the Humanities and in the field’s different disciplines? To be able to understand the development of the Humanities as a field and the development of the academic infrastructure, we claim that there is a need of an in-depth study of internationalization in the Humanities as a set of challenging and diversified practices.

Very little is known about actual “international” practices and strategies of the humanities’ scholars, about factors promoting and hindering international mobility and co-operations, the kind of knowledge that is gained and shared in different international contexts. The aim of this project is to broaden the understanding of the humanities in relation to internationalization, and analyze incentives and difficulties of different forms of international practices among Swedish humanities scholars, both depending and not depending on physical mobility (i.e. short-term and long-term stays, conferences, project meetings, co-operation in research projects, networking, writing articles). How do different international practices affect knowledge, professional status, career and working conditions?

The project "Swedish Humanities and the Challenges of Internationalization. A cultural analysis of incentives, obstacles, and learning processes" consists of three cooperating sub-projects, each focusing on a specific group of scholars/teachers who have gained their PhD in the Swedish humanities. These are: 1. Philosophy, 2. Romance languages and 3. History and history of ideas/science. These groups comprise different traditions of and incentives for international mobility, co-operations and publication strategies. This will make it possible to problematize the idea of the Humanities as a homogenous academic field of knowledge and to discuss if and how “internationalization” may come on different terms for different academic disciplines.