Learning in Solidarity: A YPAR Study of International Student Belonging & Activism

• In Event: Supporting Youth Activism in Hostile Times: Case Studies in Deepening YPAR Practices

Abstract

1. Purposes: We designed our YPAR project to better understand how international students experience campus life, particularly during a moment of heightened political tension around Palestine, immigration, and student protest. Our aim was to explore questions of safety, inclusion, and belonging in order to understand how international and domestic students perceive one another on our college campus. Grounded in a YPAR framework (Cammarota & Fine, 2010; Mirra et al., 2015), our research reflects our identities as Dominican-American students who are children of immigrants, while affirming our commitment to youth voice, cross-cultural solidarity, and community-based inquiry.

2. Theoretical Framework: Our research is informed by our lived experiences navigating racial and cultural dynamics in predominantly white institutions. We come to this work with a deep understanding of what it means to navigate PWIs as women of color. We draw from YPAR (Cammarota & Fine, 2010; Mirra et al., 2015) as a framework for examining power and knowledge production. Our work is shaped by humanizing and decolonizing research practices (Paris & Winn, 2014) and by a commitment to challenging institutional narratives that suppress dissent, particularly around Palestine (Mustafa, 2024; Said, 1978).

3. Methods: We used semi-structured interviews (Galletta, 2013), campus observations, and document analysis (Ball, 1993) to explore how international students experience political expression on campus. We interviewed international students, including a Palestinian-American peer in our class, to understand how institutional responses to protest shaped their sense of safety. We also analyzed public statements and policy documents from prominent U.S. universities to contextualize our findings.

4. Data Sources: Our data includes interview transcripts, observation notes from campus events, survey responses, and institutional documents such as school policies and public statements. We especially want to highlight the voices of international students, whose perspectives are often overlooked and essentialized in broader campus narratives. Their reflections offered critical insight into how political climates and institutional responses shape their sense of belonging and safety. Additionally, we analyzed publicly available data on social media, including digital online interactions between young adults.

5. Results: We found that international students often feel isolated and hesitant to speak out, particularly when their visa status may be impacted by political engagement. Some students found community through racial or cultural affinity groups, while others expressed a sense of disconnection. One major theme we discovered was that administrative messaging, policy ambiguity, and perceived surveillance influenced students’ willingness to engage in protest or dialogue. These findings suggest cultures of fear and silence are embedded in everyday campus life, especially for those most vulnerable.

6. Scholarly Significance: Our research shows how undergraduate students, particularly those from immigrant and first-generation backgrounds, can conduct meaningful and authentic research that connects personal experience to larger systems of injustice. It highlights how youth-led research can foster solidarity with international students and bring visibility to the limits of progressive politics (Hill & Plitnick, 2021). This work matters because it demonstrates the role of participatory research in challenging dominant narratives and amplifying voices often excluded from campus and policy discourse.

Authors

• Sadhay Pharaiz Nunez, Farleigh Dickinson University

• Samantha Anil Figaro-Olivo, Fairleigh Dickinson University