Mobility Humanities

This special issue traces back to the 2021 Global Mobility Humanities Conference (GMHC), organised online by the Academy of Mobility Humanities, Konkuk University, on Oct. 29 and 30, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the physically restricted mobilities experienced globally at the time brought to attention the relevance of the conference, “moveo, ergo sum,” that was previously used to address the topic of “human identity” (Bergmann 21) or the idea of “becoming through mobility” (Salazar 8). Unlike René Descartes, who had to travel abroad to seek a fixed axiom, “Cogito, ergo sum,” the conference participants, crossing arts, cultural and literary studies, geography, philosophy, sociology, and urban design, discussed mobilities whilst acknowledging their forced immobility, critically revisiting the specific “mobilitarian ideology” (Mincke 27) that prioritises mobility over immobility.