Some scholars are more equal than others: visa barriers, passport privilege, and global academic mobility

COST Action Decolonising development: research, teaching and practice (DecolDEV) is organising this online seminar on reflections on visa barriers, passport privilege and global academic mobility and discuss ways forward for breaking down the barriers.

We live in times promising, and oftentimes presuming, limitless mobility. Especially in the academic world researchers are asked to be hyper mobile in order to carry out and present their work, facilitate international projects and collaborations, and expand knowledges.

However, not everyone has the same preconditions to travelling and contributing to research in this simple manner. Some scholars are simply more equal than others (Bilgen and Uluğ 2022).

While researchers from Western Europe and North America do not have to worry about visa barriers and passport restrictions, scholars from the majority world are used to spend valuable time and resources on visa procurement and navigate administrative and organisational boundaries oftentimes faced with racist and discriminatory institutions. Rejected visa applications are on a daily agenda when it comes to planning an academic trip with a “Global South” passport.

As an academic network that not only seeks to decolonise ‘development’, but also fundamentally uproot the geopolitics of knowledge, the question of who is, and who can actually physically be, around the table is vital for the way this Action engages and collaborates.

Registration link

More information can be found on decolonise.eu.

Contact: Dr Julia Schöneberg, [email protected]