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About this arts-based research workshop

Project Narrative:

We live in contentious times where civic life is being eroded, increased human rights violations result in mass protests globally, and cultural wars within Western societies produce backlash against differences. Within this context, international students studying abroad must both find their place and make meaning of their experiences within host cultures (Zhang & Goodson, 2011). Although enrollments have fallen during the COVID-19 pandemic, international students still make up 6% of the total student body (International students studying in the United States, 2022). A full 71.2% of international students participating in education abroad in 2021 came from Asian countries. Existing scholarship on international students in higher education converge around four important themes: 1) attempts to fit in to host cultures; 2) fighting against stereotypes about their cultures of origin; 3) conflict regarding social expectations, especially for women; and 4) feeling isolated or lonely (Lomer & Anthony-Okeke, 2019; Zhang & Goodson, 2010; Lin & Scherz, 2014). Many international students self-isolate to minimize feelings of difference and loneliness in the host cultures (Lin & Shertz, 2014; Perry, 2016; Shupe, 2007). However, by doing so they inadvertently distance themselves from the host culture, which can intensify their isolation.  Asian international students also enter U.S. campuses rife with cultural, gender, and racial bias that along with rising anti-Asian bias creates added challenges to the usual stresses of adapting to the host societies (International students studying in the United States, 2022; Ruiz et al., 2022). Asian female international students face even more challenges when studying abroad than their male counterparts because of cultural expectations that women prioritize family responsibilities (Kramer et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2009; Lim et al., 2021; Yang & Charles, 2021). They may sacrifice their scholarly work to care for their families in ways that are not fully understood by Westerners who interpret cultural norms in stereotypical ways. Asian international students find that the common challenges of adapting to the host culture in the US are aggravated by anti-Asian racism and sexism that make them vulnerable to fear and trauma.  

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These dynamics have prompted us to ask the following questions regarding the well-being of international students on CSU’s campus:  1) What approaches can encourage Asian international students to not just "fit-in" but to understand their valuable contribution of cultural knowledge to the host cultures?; 2) How can we support Asian females regarding how their host society’s cultural misinterpretation of cultural gendered norms?; and 3) How can we promote their social interaction with non-Asians students to close the gap of distance prevalent among Asian international students. 

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The proposed project examines the impact of cultural, gender, and racial bias on Asian international students at CSU by providing tools for combatting cultural and racial battle fatigue toward more equilibrium and calm.  To address the isolation and loneliness experienced by Asian international students, we will host an art space for them to talk across differences (Lorde, 1984) with each other and U.S. students in the form of two-day workshops to be offered during the 2023 spring semester. These workshops draw on an intersectional healing justice framework using critical arts-based methods. Participants examine their cultural differences through the creation of a “cultural commons,” an explorative space to exchange thoughts, ideas, and creativity around sensitive topics like cultural, gender, and racial biases to foster critical consciousness and critical agency.  Collaborating faculty will conduct a duoethnographic analysis of the emerging model developed for talking across differences that can be scaled to address the needs of other parts of the CLA community struggling with equity and justice issues.

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Rationale, Theoretical Framework, and Goals:

Learning to talk across differences in our turbulent times helps re-establish our sense of equanimity so we respond rather than react to contentious situations. Both Asian and US students will participate in these dialogues that help them build awareness and advocacy around difficult issues of bias toward cultivating cultures of care. However, we center Asian international students because their vulnerabilities to U.S. cultural, racial, and gender bias affect their academic and emotional well-being as they adapt to the host culture, thereby shaping their education abroad experiences in distinctive and detrimental ways.

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The project’s theoretical framework draws on intersectionality, healing justice, and arts-based methods for social change as important funds of knowledge from which to build communities of care and justice within educational settings. An intersectional approach allows for an understanding about how human relationships are shaped by various social categories within connected structures of power in ways that have implications for their well-being (Hill Collins & Bilge, 2016). Healing justice examines how systemic and institutional injustices affect the body (Pyles, 2019) to promote the co-regulation of emotions as people collaborate toward a common goal.  Arts-based methods emphasize art making as a conduit for social change through the cultivation of creativity that “invites all people into the category of artist” (Quinn, 2012, 5). Ayers and Green (2012) assert that art-based methods help awaken critical consciousness in ways that nurture a “recognition of the full humanity of the other” (pp. xiv-xvi). Hochtritt (2012) contends that participation, collaboration and communication outside traditional classrooms support the way through “art, collective practices and public pedagogies hold[s] great promise in thinking toward our future and re-envisioning how participation in education can happen in more democratic and transformational ways” (p. 100). Our combined framework helps participants build awareness and advocacy around topics such as racial battle fatigue (Menakim, 2017), patriarchy stress disorder (Rein, 2019), intergenerational and historical patterns of systemic oppression and inequity (Berila, 2016; Hammod, 2014), and self- and co-regulation (Porges, 2017; Van Dernoot Lipsky, 2015) regarding stressful social dynamics.

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The intersectional healing justice framework combined with an arts-based method supports the creation of cultural commons that elevates solidarity practices among divergent people and cultures.  What is “cultural commons?” Santagata et al. (2011) describes cultural commons as a collection of mutual orientations toward a shared identity that includes reciprocal dependence and engagement in activities to generate “one or more social dilemmas” (pp. 2-6). We extend the cultural commons to include transformative social practices that help individuals care for themselves and each other through self-advocacy and self-care regarding what U.S. social activists call “the inner work” of social justice (Magee, 2019). Workshop participants will share their awareness and strengthen their advocacy around topics of cultural, gender, and racial bias that heal our culture of learning.  Building a cultural commons attentive to talking across differences that promote cultural understanding promises to be a potent approach for addressing the tensions within our university regarding cultural and racial biases experienced by international students

Our goals are modest. We hope to support student well-being through art making in ways that validate, affirm, and inspire them regarding their cultures of origin.  We also want to develop a critical dialogue among and between workshop participants that fosters critical consciousness and critical agency about cultural, gender, and racial differences in positive and uplifting ways. Thus, our goals are to: 1) Develop participants’ understanding and application of critical arts-based methods to address social conflict around cultural, gender, and racial differences; 2) Empower participants to examine how self-reflection through arts-based practices support dialogues across differences towards humanized learning; and 3) Develop healing justice literacy among participants with attention toward democratization of university culture through learning to talk across differences.

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References:

  • Ayers, B., & Green, M. (2012). Forward: The Introduction, In Quinn, T. M., Ploof. J., & Hochtritt, L. J. (Eds). Art and social justice education: Culture as commons (pp. xi-xvi.). Routledge.

  • Berila, B. (2016). Mindfulness as a healing, liberatory practice in queer anti-oppression pedagogy. Social Alternatives, 35(3): 5-10.

  • Foster, V. (2012). The pleasure principle: Employing arts-based methods in social work research. The European Journal of Social Work, 15, 532–545. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2012.702311

  • Hill Collins, P. & Sirma B. (2020) Intersectionality. John Wiley & Sons.

  • Hochtritt, L. J. (2012). Introduction to Part III: The Next Big Thing. Quinn, T. M., Ploof. J., & Hochtritt, L. J. (Eds.). Art and social justice education: Culture as commons (p. 100). Routledge. 

  • International students studying in the United States: Trends and impacts 2022. Boundless. (2022, September 9). Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://www.boundless.com/research/international-students-studying-in-the-united-states-trends-and-impacts/

  • Kariwo, M. T., Asadi, N., & Bouhali, C. E. (Eds.). (2019). Interrogating models of diversity within a multicultural environment. Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Kramer EJ., Kwong K, Lee E, & Chung H. (2002). Cultural factors influencing the mental health of Asian Americans. Western Journal of Medicine, 176(4):227-231. 

  • Lee, S. A., Park, H. S., Kim, W. (2009). Gender differences in international students' adjustment. College Student Journal, 43(4), p. 1217-1227.

  • Lin, SY., & Scherz, S. D. (2014). Challenges facing Asian international graduate students in the US: Pedagogical considerations in higher education. Journal of International Students, 4(1), 16–33. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v4i1.494

  • Lomer, S., & Anthony-Okeke, L. (2019). Ethically engaging international students: Student generated material in an active blended learning model. Teaching in Higher Education, 24(5), 613–632. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1617264

  • Lorde, A. (2012). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Crossing Press.

  • Magee, Rhonda V. The inner work of racial justice: Healing ourselves and transforming our communities through mindfulness. Penguin, 2021.

  • Menakem, R. (2021). My grandmother's hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Penguin UK.

  • Porges, S. (2017).The pocket guide to polyvagal theory, 1st ed. W. W. Norton & Company.

  • Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin.

  • Perry, C. J. (2016). Comparing International and American students’ challenges: A literature review. Journal of International Students, 6(3), 712–721. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v6i3.352

  • Pyles, L. (2018). Healing justice: Holistic self-care for change makers. Oxford University Press.

  • Rein, V. (2019). Patriarchy stress disorder: The invisible inner barrier to women's happiness and fulfillment. Lioncrest Publishing.

  • Ruiz, N. G., Edwards, K., & Lopez, M. H. (2022, May 9). One-third of Asian Americans fear threats, physical attacks and most say violence against them is rising. Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/21/one-third-of-asian-americans-fear-threats-physical-attacks-and-most-say-violence-against-them-is-rising/

  • Santagata, W. et al. (2011). Cultural commons and cultural communities. Proceeding. The 13th Biennial Conference International Association Study Commons, p. 2.

  • Shupe, E. I. (2007). Clashing cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(6), 750–771. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022107308996

  • Yang, & Charles. (2021). Traditional Asians? race, ethnicity, and gender policy attitudes in the United States. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 7(2), 130-153. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2021.7.2.07

  • Zhang, J., & Goodson, P. (2011). Acculturation and psychosocial adjustment of Chinese International Students:         Examining mediation and moderation effects. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(5), 614–627. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2010.11.004

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