Geographies of neo-nationalism in European higher education: conceptual pathways and research directions

While recent decades saw European universities align with globalisation and internationalisation through various policy initiatives, current trends signal a growing backlash from neo-nationalism. This article proposes an analytical lens that foregrounds four interrelated dimensions – geographies of scale, community, affect/emotion, and time – for examining how neo-nationalist discourses are mobilised, institutionalised, and contested across diverse higher education contexts in Europe. Informed by scholarship in nationalism studies, affect studies and geography, this paper interprets the rise of neo-nationalism not simply as a rejection of internationalisation, but as a reconfiguration of universities’ mission in response to intersecting challenges such as migration, economic precarity, and cultural anxiety. The proposed framework enables a nuanced analysis that both attends to local particularities and identifies transnational patterns. This framework bridges the disconnect between nationalism studies, geography, and higher education – fields sharing concerns with identity, power, and governance, yet historically evolving in parallel rather than engaging in sustained dialogue.