Venus in the Unvisible: Accounting for AntiBlackness in the International Higher Education Research Archive

Abstract Critical race studies in international higher education remains on the margins. More so are analyses of Black subjects (nations, institutions, people, etc.) and/or knowledge traditions. In particular, there remains a dearth of research centering Black subjects as not only the unit of analysis, but also agents in the internationalization of higher education. These absences shape the way researchers approach the questions and problems of international higher education, perpetuating an archive of research that erases global Black experiences. The purpose of this article is to imagine a study of international higher education guided by Black studies. In conversation with two Black studies analytics—McKittrick’s Black Unvisibility and the inquiries shaping Hartman’s Critical Fabulation—I narratively and creatively explore the Black subject possibilities therein.