Autoethnographies of Asian International Graduate Students
 in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Asian American and Pacific Islander Women Navigating Higher Education

Abstract

The multiplicity and intersectionality of international students’ identities and the heterogeneity of their lived experience are understudied topics in existing literature. Especially during COVID-19, the experiences of international students’ isolation, uncertainty, and economic/emotional hardships remain silenced by dominant narratives. Using autoethnography as our methodology and transnationalism and AsianCrit as our conceptual framework, we, as international doctoral students from China and South Korea, draw on self-narratives to examine our lived experiences in the U.S. These narratives collectively (1) demonstrate our personal, academic, and social experiences shaped by our racial and transnational backgrounds, (2) highlight the need for the public to recognize the vulnerabilities and dilemmas faced by Asian international students, (3) aim to empower fellow international students to tell their stories.

Authors

• Shuang Fu, University of Georgia - Athens

• Ji Hyun Hong, University of Georgia

• Tairan Qiu, University of Georgia - Athens

• Eun Young Yeom, University of Georgia - Athens