ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an insider's perspective on contemporary intercultural encounters in academia in the context of an ever-growing global academic mobility. It explores some of the advantages and benefits of participating as an insider in the experiences of the researched. The chapter argues that active participation in the lived experiences of the research field to identify beneficial ways of interchanging knowledge which are termed cosmopolitan dispositions. It discusses cosmopolitan 'long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body' as emerging opportunities for intercultural knowledge exchange and knowledge creation. Skilled migration and academic mobility are the most visible manifestations of globalization and internationalization of education today. The European University Institute (EUI) and LUISS are leading research and teaching institutions devoted exclusively to social sciences. They especially emphasize comparative studies and international links which are of particular interest for academic migrants. These cultural dispositions can be more closely described as cosmopolitan, drawing from the current scholarship on cosmopolitanism.
