Restrictions on academic freedom, persecution and armed conflict have forced many scholars into exile. So far, the professional trajectories of these scholars and their contributions to knowledge exchange have not been studied comprehensively. The contributors to this volume address the situations and networks of scholars in exile, the challenges they face in their host countries and the opportunities they use. These issues are highly relevant to discussions about the moral economies of higher education institutions and support programs. Although the contributions largely focus on Germany as a host country, they also offer telling examples of forced mobility in the Global South, including both contemporary and historical perspectives.
Vera Axyonova is a researcher at the Centre for Intercultural and European Studies, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany, and an associate researcher with the Europe-Central Asia Monitoring program of the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE), Madrid, Spain. She specializes in democratization research and external policies of the European Union, with a particular focus on EU-Central Asia affairs.