Scale-Making and Borderland Subjectivities: Identity Construction Among Chinese International Students in the United States

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Sixteen
  In Roundtable Session: Identity, Capital, and Experiences Among International Students (Table 2)

Abstract

This study demonstrates how identity construction among a group of Chinese international students is embodied through the ways in which the students (re)negotiate their subject positions vis-à-vis their home and host societies. Building on a conceptualization of the students as borderland subjects, the study brings to the fore a state of critical and creative in-betweenness characterizing the positionings of the students. To unfold the agentive aspect of the formation of the students’ borderland subjectivities, the study draws on the notion of scales. By attending to the scaling practices of the students, the study features an account of the discursive/semiotic resources used by the students to index and connect multiple spatial-temporal contexts in navigating their journey towards becoming the borderland subjects.

Author

• Peng Yin, University of California - Berkeley
  Presenting Author