The internationality imperative in academia. The ascent of internationality as an academic virtue

The paper investigates internationality as an academic virtue that is highly relevant for research biographies. The discursive trajectory of this virtue is assessed by comparing ascriptions of internationality in 216 academic obituaries from the US, UK and Germany, from physics, sociology and history, and from the 1960s, 1980s and 2000s. Our analysis reveals that internationality as a virtue is more prevalent in German than in US obituaries, that it plays a greater role in physics than in history obituaries, and that, independent from national and disciplinary contexts, the ascription of internationality increases over time. The results are relevant for research on academic values and on the internationalization of academia. By drawing on obituaries, the analysis conveys how ‘internationality’ developed as a discursive construct, and how it turned into an imperative that academics increasingly have to comply with in order to be deemed honorable.