Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

DOI

10.32674/prd4ky72

Publication Title

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Volume

16

Issue

5

Pages

76-90

Abstract

We are two women international students from the Global South, situated in Turkey and the U.S. respectively. In this article, we utilized collaborative autoethnography to critically reflect on our intellectual, emotional, linguistic, and cultural growth during a virtual exchange program that we participated in during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this co-exploration, we analyzed our experiences and reflections as participants in a COIL program to consider, more broadly, the evolution and trajectory of virtual mobility in an uneven higher education landscape. Our virtual exchange emerged as a digital and transnational third space, unbounded by hegemonic epistemic, linguistic, or geographical borders. We learned about the vibrant and thriving cultural traditions, thought traditions, and religious/spiritual traditions of Turkmenistan and India, our home countries. Through technologies such as Zoom and WhatsApp, we discovered each other’s personalities and backgrounds, centering sisterhood and friendship along the way. We framed our analysis through a critical internationalization perspective, delineating the challenges and limitations of normative virtual exchanges and arguing for transformative exchanges that honor and affirm the epistemologies of the Global South.

Rights

© 2024 Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License.

ORCID

0000-0001-8757-1639 (Sicka)

Original Publication Citation

Sicka, B., & Atajanova, A. (2024). Global south sisterhood in a virtual exchange: A critical autoethnography. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 16(5), 76-90. https://doi.org/10.32674/prd4ky72

Download

Share

COinS