The work of Gibbons et. al. (1994) distinguished between Mode 1 knowledge and Mode 2 knowledge. The argument of this paper is that this classic dichotomy is in need of re-thinking in two distinct periods in the intellectual history - here interpreted as two moments of the mobility of persons within the world-system: first, the period of the extreme politics of Nazism and the mobility of academics, notably away from Germany; and second, the period of the extreme politics of neo-liberalism. Biographical accounts will be used to show how new Mode1 and Mode 2 knowledge were generated by mobility – i.e. as a consequence of the major shift in locale and networks of individual academics - in the first period, notably from Germany to the USA and UK. However the paper will concentrate on the second moment of modern mobility: we are seeing the mobility of ‘academics’, but much else has changed. The narratives of selected mobile academics’ lived experiences will evince (i) the significance of universalising demands of ‘knowledge creation’ as a force for mobility and migration; (ii) the contemporary re-definition of ‘knowledge’ as range of knowledges; and (iii) the intricate relations of transnational mobility and identity shifts and modes of knowledge creation.