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Sharing the mist: An interdisciplinary journey of international women doctoral students

Sat, March 22, 1:15 to 2:30pm, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, Crystal Room

Group Submission Type: Refereed Roundtable Session

Proposal

Introduction
Globally, women's education contributes significantly to social and economic advancement, but considerable inequities remain (Nelson-Rogers, 2024). In particular, women’s graduate education has not been prioritized by global development partners yet research shows that it leads to social mobility, economic growth, and intergenerational socio-economic benefits (Neidhöfer et al.,2024; Meng & Li, 2022). The digital space provides a platform for global female scholars to receive education that is absent in their institutions and curricula by eradicating geographical, cultural, economic, gender, generational and disciplinary barriers. This roundtable aims to demonstrate how the digital space can be leveraged as a learning space irrespective of the location of students. We present a tapestry of autoethnographies of ten Global Female PhD participants from three different countries as part of the Alimah International Female PhD Virtual Exchange.
Alimah International
Born from education's cultural contexts, Alimah International sculpted the human potential of female scholars' global connection through education. Historically, professional development has existed in silos that do not cross pollinate. In a post-Covid-19 world, digital spaces now allow a "sharing of the mist." Alimah International defines "the mist" as engagement through interdependence and interrelation; removal of geographical temporal barriers with inclusion of digital spaces as a viable educational tool; and focuses on political transformations from micro-, meso-, and ultimately macro- levels. Using research-in-action, Alimah International acknowledges and protects women within the midst by allowing that space for hearing, sharing, and crafting their own narratives. Alimah International supports women's academic journeys by providing an innovative service that induces reflection, interprets oneself during the doctoral study, and analysis of impact, including our thinking, research, and reach, resulting in polyvocal solutions to one global problem providing professional development via transferable skills often-times shielded behind hidden curriculum.
Roundtable
The mode of inquiry for this work is a group of autoethnographies, contributed by ten international women doctoral students, in which agency was celebrated. Within the body of this work, contributors retained their own voices. Participants experienced interdependence and interrelation via symbiotic autoethnography (Beattie, 2022); temporality, transformative (political) focus, and reflexivity induced interpretative analysis for the participants. Ultimately, polyvocality was exhibited in the evocative autoethnographies. This work adapts cultural contexts including geographical, disciplines, ethnicities, generational, economic, and gender. The contextualization of the work is rooted within Ngano – a Shona proverbial storytelling skillset, rooted in diverse cultures. The strength of this theory and associated frameworks is expanded further within the academic research of many individual contributors.
Roundtable Discussion Organization
This session begins with brief remarks by the session discussant (5 mins) and is followed by 5-minute presentations by each of the paper presenters (50 mins). The audience will then be engaged through a question-and-answer session (15 mins). Finally, the discussant will offer closing remarks (5 mins).
Contribution
We offer this research as an example of digitization of learning as comparative education makes room for global connectivity through digital technology. Through this study, we provide insights into how non-formal schooling spaces can bridge educational gaps separated by geographical, cultural, disciplinary, and gender boundaries.

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