Vol. 11 No. SI2 (2023)

The papers in this special issue "Thinking with ocean/s for reconceptualising scholarship in higher education" edited by Dr Nike Romano, Prof Vivienne Bozalek and Prof Tammy Shefer, emanated from a  colloquium entitled  ‘Thinking with ocean/s for reconceptualising scholarship in higher education’ that took place on 21 October 2022, in Simonstown, Cape Town. The colloquium, hosted by CriSTaL, was geared towards a focus on thinking with water and oceans and specifically  included  researchers, teachers, activists, and artists who were thinking-with oceanic scholarly methodologies.  In this special issue of CriSTaL, we include five of the papers that were presented at the Colloquium. The papers examine how the relationship between higher education pedagogies and thinking with ocean/s could expand and enliven the higher education landscape that we find ourselves in today. Focussing specifically on thinking-with oceanic scholarly methodologies in relation to higher education pedagogies, the papers are inspired by Slow scholarship, post-qualitative, embodied, and mobile methodologies such as swimming, walking, and foraging (see Martin et al., this issue) as well as hydrofeminist thinking (Neimanis, 2012, 2013, 2017a, 2017b). However, this collection of papers is also a testament to the potential that experimental spaces that undo authoritative and pathologising presenting, reviewing and feedback processes – such as the colloquium held for this special issue and the ongoing support of authors – might provide prospective authors (Shefer, et al., 2023). We see this as being in line with CriSTaL’s aims to ‘provide a stimulating and challenging forum for contributors to theorise, trouble, reconfigure and re- imagine higher education teaching and learning practice [and] encourage authors to be creative, take risks, [and] think "otherwise"... framed by a sensibility towards social justice'.