Southern Students in the House of Western/Northern Academia

A growing number of critical scholars have identified the ways that the internationalization of higher education has largely led to the reproduction of uneven global power relations and resource flows. Some of these scholars have described this as the continuation of a colonial global imaginary that presumes the epistemic authority of the Global North and naturalizes the reproduction of Northern economic hegemony (Shahjahan, Blanco & Andreotti, 2017; Stein & Andreotti, 2016). Scholars have linked international student flows (predominantly from South to North) (Brooks & Waters, 2011), the ongoing presumed intellectual superiority of Western knowledge production (Beck & Ilieva, 2019), and international students and scholars experiences of racism in Northern institutions to this colonial imaginary (Rhee & Sagaria, 2004). To date, most of this research has focused on critical readings of the ways that Northern institutions and academics reproduce this colonial imaginary, generally in ways that enhance their own reputations and resources, as well as analyses of the negative impacts experienced by international students and faculty from the Global South (e.g., George Mwangi et al., 2018; Guo & Guo, 2017; Indelicato, 2018; Marginson, 2012; Yao, George Mwangi, & Brown, 2019). In this chapter, we seek to deepen conversations about the implications of this colonial imaginary, as well as the reasons for its continued reproduction, despite growing critiques (Stein, 2019). We focus on the different ways that international students from the Global South relate to Northern academic institutions, and why they continue to seek study opportunities in the Global North in large numbers. We note that students relationships with Northern institutions might shift over time, particularly from the time that they apply for admission to when they experience life as a student there. Extending conversations that emphasize the ways that international students are exploited and instrumentalized by these institutions, we ask how international students relate to these institutions in the context of a colonial global imaginary. To do so, we use the metaphor of the House of Western Academia, and offer a social cartography (Andreotti et al., 2016; Paulston, 1999; Sua & Andreotti, 2019) of different ways that students seek to navigate this house. Our approach to social cartography is pedagogical rather than representational, meaning that while we recognize that students individual reasons for studying abroad are complex, layered, and contextual, we map larger patterns of engagement with the House of Western Northern Academia as a means to invite further conversations about the complex dynamics that shape decisions to study abroad and ultimately contribute to resistance to and/or reproduction of the colonial global imaginary. We draw on existing scholarly literature, our empirical research, and personal experiences.