Seminar: Selling Minds, Moving Bodies, Breaking Hearts

Grounded in interdisciplinary theories of academic capitalism, emotional labor, and migration studies, and drawing from my personal experiences of studying and working in Germany, Norway, the United States, and the United Kingdom, this talk challenges the prevailing theoretical paradigms that glorify international mobility as a symbol of success. Instead, it highlights the hidden emotional toll on international students and scholars, revealing how neoliberal institutions prioritize profit over the mental and emotional health of their current and future academic workforce.

By interrogating these dynamics, this talk advocates for a more humane and emotionally attuned understanding of global academic mobility. It calls for structural changes in how higher education institutions engage with and support their international scholars, while offering a new framework—Homo Sensus Academicus Mobilis.

Nikola Lero is a former Yugoslav Wars refugee, an early-career migration researcher, and a poet from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He holds a Double Bachelor of Arts degree in Law and a prestigious Summa Cum Laude Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree in Migration and Intercultural Relations from seven Euro-African universities, awarded as a European Union Scholar. Nikola’s academic journey includes working as an independent researcher at the University of Oldenburg and serving as a research assistant in the Department of Cultural Studies and Languages at the University of Stavanger in Norway. In 2022/2023, he furthered his expertise as a Visiting Researcher at St. Louis University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the United States, as a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship from the U.S. State Department.

Nikola’s research stands out for its integration of arts-based methodologies and philosophical approaches into migration studies, aiming to reimagine global mobility through creative and critical perspectives. Beyond academia, he has collaborated with influential organizations such as the European Parliament, UNICEF, and UNESCO. He is also the co-founder of "The Literary Union," a queer, youth-oriented literary movement in the former Yugoslavia.

Currently, Nikola is pursuing his PhD at the University of Sheffield, where he is researching the British Serb diaspora as a UKRI scholarship recipient. His innovative approach and diverse collaborations position him as a notable voice in both migration studies and cultural activism, particularly in the Balkans.