Natalia Tikhonov Sigrist

As old as the universities themselves, academic migrations are a result of the interaction of cultural, social, political and economic forces. In the Western world, from the foundation of the first medieval universities onwards, the hosting of students and faculty coming from other European regions has become an established function in higher learning institutions. This freedom of movement has gone together with the free choice of studies and subjects taught. From the Middle Ages to the 16th century, then again in 19th-20th centuries, these migrations, directed towards Europe, were a massive phenomenon. However, their development was neither linear nor uniform. Depending on the places, periods, fields of study, social and national groups or even individuals involved, this large movement was determined by very different sets of motivations. 

The study of academic migration is symptomatic of the new major paradigms in the history of social and cultural relations in Europe, going beyond the frame of single States to multicultural and multi-societal social constructs. This theme, uncovered by historians about two decades ago, is currently undergoing a dynamic expansion. However it frequently remains limited to narrow case studies because of the lack of well-established networks. The result is a lack of comparative research carried out on a continental scale. But this theme is par excellence European : it involves all the countries and likewise concerns the host countries—generally in Western Europe—and the countries of origin, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe, but also in America and in Asia. The subject of this research cuts across several disciplines, such as the social history of student populations and elites, cultural history (e.g. study of intellectual networks), historical sociology (study of professions), the history of science and the history of universities.

My research project aims at linking a wide academic migration phenomenon to the consolidation of modernity, at the turn of the 20th century and in relation to Western Europe, in three politico-cultural spheres with rather different university systems, political regimes and professional structures: the United States, the Russian Empire and Japan. My intention is to analyze, for a period spanning 70 years, student mobility and knowledge-transfer which happened in the context of continuity (US), of rupture (Russia before and after the October revolution) or sporadic attendance of European universities in the beginning of the 20th century (Japan). This research will survey (1) study abroad of students originating from these countries; (2) impacts of the training received abroad on the professional careers and cultural orientation of the former students; (3) ways of producing and circulating knowledge between those parts of the world most keen on modernization in the early 20th century.

I anticipate that this research will cast further light on the logic underlying the creation of scientific and intellectual networks in Europeas well as the dissemination and transfer of knowledge. Viewed through this lens, academic migrations will certainly appear as an important part of cultural, scientific and political exchange. The protagonists could be considered as mediators between the age-old Western academic culture and the spaces of higher education still under construction. Making an individual oeuvre in a more or less national frame, they bear witness to the universality of modern knowledge and its concomitant values.