Volume 13, issue 2 of CriSTaL brings together ten research articles and three book reviews that engage critically with key challenges shaping contemporary higher education. Organised around four interrelated themes—sustainable development, language and linguistics, artificial intelligence, and social justice—the issue showcases innovative pedagogical practices while interrogating dominant discourses, power relations, and assumptions within the academy. Contributions span diverse disciplinary and institutional contexts, including the Arts, Economic and Management Sciences, Physics, Language Education, and Doctoral Education, and draw on a range of methodological approaches. Across the issue, authors explore how higher education can respond more thoughtfully to social, environmental, linguistic, and technological complexities.