This book illuminates international voices of those who feel empowered to do things differently in higher education, providing inspiration to those who are seeking guidance, reassurance or a beacon of hope.

Part 1: The Setting 1. Rethinking Expectations in Academia: How Lowering Expectations of Ourselves and Others Improves Wellbeing 2. Laughter as survival, selfcare, solidarity, and resistance in academia 3. Queer visibility and self-care in academia: Exploring the contradictions of identity, activism and silence 4. Killing the Binary Part 2: Repositioning Learning and Teaching for Self and Others 5. Confronting failure as self-care: Critical honesty as a springboard for positive change in teaching and learning 6. Exploring belonging: Reflections on valuing lived experiences and centering healing in compassionate and meaningful interactions 7. Beware the awareness gap 8. Things Differently through the Lenses of Gestalt Philosophy and Practice-based Learning: A Hopeful Outlook on the Benefits of Co-creating with Students to Support Wellbeing in Higher Education 9. It’s about Place: Inside Indigenising the curriculum Part 3: Connection, Interconnection, and Companions 10. A meditation on the idea of heterotopia and the need for spaces of hope and possibility in higher education 11. How A Unique Student Fellowship Model Enables Proactive Wellbeing 12. Fostering an ecosystem of connection 13. A cat named Jiji: belonging, identity and navigating cultural displacement in academia Part 4: Emerging Researchers, Mentoring and Finding One's Self 14. Raising self-awareness by thinking beyond the boundary fence: Exploring the potential boundaries around international doctoral students 15. With awareness comes great power: Self-discovery and acceptance as strategies for thriving in academia 16. Does belonging affect wellbeing? A researcher experiences of transition from a conflict-affected country to Australia Part 5: Taking a Closer Look at Leadership 17. Leading with kindness: A self-care (and survival) way of being for an academic administrator 18. Expansive Leadership, Expansive Engagement: Two viewpoints on learning into spacious leading 19. Finding an equilibrium? Is that possible when you are thrown into leadership?