Introduction: Alternative internationalisms

This special issue is the result of three years of conversations and scholarly exchange, emerging from the Alternative Internationalisms working group of the ‘European Universities – Critical Futures’ project. This project, led by Professor Susan Wright and funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, allowed for the development of a network of seventeen European research centres, including both senior and early stage researchers, with the stated objective ‘to rethink the role of European universities in a context of political, social and geopolitical upheaval’ (European Universities – Critical Futures n.d.). The internationalisation of higher education is a necessary area for exploration in any rethinking of what European universities can and should be, and so this was one of the foci of the project through a working group of researchers and academics in different parts of the world. ‘Rethinking’ as the overarching aim of the ‘European Universities – Critical Futures’ project allowed not just for an open and curious approach to internationalisation, however, but for stepping back to consider just what ‘the international’ means for those involved in higher education.