In Black and White: Race and Meaning in the Lives of Five International Graduate Students

• In Event: Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Globalization in Postsecondary/Higher Education

Abstract

Although international students are a popular topic of scholarship, much work in this area has not examined students’ experiences with race and power across national contexts. This study used a comparative case study methodology to examine 1) how international students’ experiences demonstrate the continued significance of race across national boundaries and 2) the strength of dichotomous (i.e., Black/White) racial thinking in the United States. To explore these questions, I conducted a series of three interviews with five international students at a university in the U.S. Southeast. The results of the study demonstrate the ways in which whiteness is tied to power globally and the continued salience of “Black and White” racial discourse in the United States.

Author

• Ashlee A. Lewis, University of South Carolina