Examining the Interplay of Identity, Culture and Human Right Activism: The Experience of LGBTQIA+ Students Studying Abroad

• In Event: Examining LGBTQIA+ student global mobility: Research at the intersection of queer identities in international higher education

Proposal

The global history of protests as a means of creating change for unjust laws, government accountability, and human rights is extensive (Woolerton, 2022). Some of the largest protest historically documented include The Salt March (1930), France in May (1968), the Stonewall Uprising (1969), Earth Day (1970), Peoples Protest (1986), Tiananmen Square (1989), The Baltic Way (1989), Anti-Iraq War (2003), Women’s March (2017), George Floyd and Black Lives Matter (2020), and The Indian Farmers Protest (2020-2021) – all of which resulted in some type of change (Woolerton, 2022). Like these protests, others have also existed within the LGBTQIA+ community on a global scale (Armstrong & Cage, 2006). While The Stonewall Riots marked a cornerstone achievement in the The Gay Liberation Movement, it was not the first time that members of the LGBTQIA+ community pushed back (Armstrong & Cage, 2006). The global campaign to protect the rights of the LGBTQIA+community has been a topic of discussion with the United Nations since its founding in 1945 (Angelo & Bocci, 2021). However, little progress has been made to create equitable advancement in protections with approximately seventy countries continuing to criminalize homosexuality and twelve that still enforce the death penalty for same-sex acts (Angelo & Bocci, 2021). Even in some countries without codified anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, individuals are routinely arrested by law enforcement based on their gender expression, exacerbating their already vulnerable position. With this in mind, it is important to protect the community in terms of research, but little research has been done to guide researchers on culturally responsive research practices (Pasque & Alexander, 2023) to protect participants within the LGBTQIA+ community who originate from countries that may harbor hostile environments with protest that have occurred or may be underway that attack their identity, nor those who might be studying in a country where the same is occurring and where in either or both situations legal protections are limited or non-existent. Through the lens of critical ethnography, we explore the lives of LGBTQIA+ community members globally who have participated or are participating in higher education in a country from which they did not originate. We capture insights into their lived experiences and what impacts their experiences have had on their identity development through the lens of human rights activism and Jones, Abes, and Quaye’s conceptualized intersectional model of multiple dimensions of identity, IMMDI (Jones & Abes, 2013). The purpose of our study is twofold: 1) to understand the delicate balance that individuals within the LGBTQIA+ community from varying countries must keep in terms of human rights activism due to their immigration status while studying abroad and 2) to learn what advice they can provide related to culturally responsive research practices that protect their identities and others like them in these situations. The study's insights could influence legislation, support services, educational curricula, and research practices, which contribute to shaping inclusive policies and understandings within higher education and society as a whole for LGBTQIA+ individuals globally.

Authors

• Mary Ann Bodine Al-Sharif, University of Alabama at Birmingham

• Yahya A. Ahmed, University of Alabama at Birmingham