This article analyzes strategies and practices among Swedish Humanities scholars in relation to the demands of “internationalization” and in a frame- work of academic capitalism. The article is based on 30 qualitative interviews with scholars in philosophy, Romance languages and history. There are signs of cognitive dissonance, with conflicting set of norms. Benefits for the aca- demic CV, along with a discipline’s ideals, traditions and its perceived role in society are the main context in which internationalization is understood, im- plemented and contested, with individual variations in international practices as e.g. international mobility, networking or publishing strategies.