The transnational and the individual: a life-history narrative in a Danish university context

This article explores linguistic and cultural border-crossing and the long-term consequences of transnational mobility on a professional international academic. It provides an in-depth qualitative analysis of a research interview which investigated the internationalisation background of a Danish academic within an English-speaking context. This individual’s personal history includes experiences abroad that have paved the way for a range of reflections and stance-takings that reflect larger scale political and ideological currents. The interviewee relates his biographical details in a way that shows a distancing from unreflected attachment to both the Danish and the US contexts in which he has lived in the past. The interview also shows how personal circumstances and life histories can provide sources over time for ‘global reflexivity’.