This edited volume explores core questions on education and transnational mobility in a time characterized by a global pandemic, recasting them through the lenses of regimes, experiences, and aspirations. The volume brings together 19 short essays in the form of letters addressed to the coronavirus and written by international students , together with nine striking illustrations that depict emotive scenes from the essays, and nine academic commentaries that analytically link these personal narratives to broader societal structures. This book represents a timely intervention, providing an intimate glimpse into young people’s hopes and the challenges they face concerning their education and mobility.
Author(s): Yi’En Cheng
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 265
City: Singapore
Foreword
Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
1 Introduction
International Students Displaced, Vulnerabilized, and Activated
Scope, Aims, and Contributions
Bridging International Student Voices and Analyses
Regional Focus on the Asia–Pacific
Theoretical Underpinnings
Organization of Book
Part 1: Regimes—Borders, Norms, and Divisions
Part 2: Experiences—Emotions, Velocity, and Habits
Part 3: Aspirations—Suspension and Freedom
References
Part I Regimes: Borders, Norms, and Divisions
2 Letters on Borders
A Letter to the Coronavirus: The Border that Connects and Divides
Invisibility and Immobility: International Students as Afterthoughts in the Pandemic
3 The New Borders of Covid-19: An International Student Perspective
Introduction
(Emerging) Borders of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Legislative Border Frameworks
Bordered Relationships
Borders in Learning
Borders, Inequality, and Precarities of the Pandemic
Conclusion
References
4 Letters on Norms
We Are Not Done Yet
Navigating Norms of Life and Study in the Time of COVID-19: A Queer Doctoral Student’s Narrative
A Married Queer Couple Locked in Two Countries
A Doctoral Student’s New Life Routine
Final Remarks
Education the New (Ab)Normal
Notes
5 Visible Norms: COVID-19 and the Challenge to Global Higher Education Practices
Norms of Educational Practices
Norms of Mobility
Norms of Expectations
The New Normal?
References
6 Letters on Divisions
Face-Changing COVID
The Missing ‘Sense of Shared Calamity’ Among the Youth
Notes
7 COVIDivides Within CORONAtionalism: International Student Experiences of Racial Othering and Nationalist Distancing
Introduction
Division and Globalization
COVIDivides
Development and Class Divides
Ethnic and Cultural Divides
Education and Digital Divides
International Students as Intersections of Multi-Scalar Inequalities
Displacement: International Students as the “Racialised Other”
Nationalist Distancing: International Students as Their Own Nationals
Conclusion
References
Part II Experiences: Emotions, Velocity and Habits
8 Letters on Emotions
To Leave, or to Stay, That is a Question
Living with Real Uncertainty: A Wave of Emotions of a Final Year Ph.D. Student Amid COVID-19
Crown Trials
February 2020—First Hearing
April 2020—Second Hearing
July 2020—Recess
December 2020—Judgment
Oh COVID-19!: A New Era of International Education Marked by the Internet, Camera, Speaker, and Microphone
9 Navigating Desire, Despondency, Disconnectedness, and Disillusionment: International Students’ Emotional Turmoil Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
Anchoring ISM Emotions: Educational Desire and Its Spatial–Temporal Disruption
Emotional Turmoil Unpacked
Educational Desire and Despondency
Familial and Social Disconnectedness
Self-Doubt and Disillusionment
Coping Strategies: Emotional Labor and Beyond
Concluding Thoughts
References
10 Letters on Velocity
Zoomin’ Across the Pacific Ocean
Pause and Ponder: Retrograde Grading in Higher Education
Note
11 Learning on Pause? The Ambivalent and Conflicting Velocities of International Student Mobilities in Pandemic Times
Introduction
Pausing to Reflect on Velocity
Contradictory Velocities of Higher Education
(Re)Zooming Study Across the Pacific
The Two-Body Problem
Re-Assessing Higher Education
Moving Forward
Notes
References
12 Letters on Habits
Thank You Letter to the Crowned Teacher
Adapt and Carry on: Understand the Changing of International Student Daily Habits Under the Pandemic
Reshaping My Life During the Pandemic: How I Have Built a Newborn Relationship with My “Family”
13 Pandemic Recalibration of Habits
Introduction
Pandemic Recalibration of Habits Among International Students
Spatial Adjustments and Relocation of Social Time
Normalization of Digital Communicative Habits
Physical-Mental Well-Being and Agency
Concluding Thoughts
References
Part III Aspirations: Suspension and Freedom
14 Letters on Suspension
Planning to Unplan: A Reflection of Learning and Living in the Time of Coronavirus
Suspended There and Back Again: Ambivalent Meditations and Lifeways of the Ph.D. Fieldwork at Home
15 Temporal Suspension, Precarity, and Agency Among International Students During the COVID-19
Introduction
Times, Temporalities, and ISM: Temporal Suspension, Precarity, and Agency
Suspended Times/Temporalities: Stillness, Waiting, and Uncertainty
Precarious Times/Temporalities: Vulnerability, Exclusion, and Instability
Temporal Agency
Immobility as a Strategy
Positive Waiting
Conclusion
References
16 Letters on Freedom
“You Guys Were OK Before the Pandemic?” Coping with Mental Health Disorders as an International Student in Singapore During COVID-19
“To Go or not to Go?”: Freedom in Flux
17 “Freedom in Flux” and “Were You Guys OK Before the Pandemic?”: A Conversation on International Students, Academic Mobilities, Higher Education, and Society at Large
Introduction
Freedom in Flux
Artemio
Le-Ha
Artemio
Le-Ha
Were You Guys OK Before the Pandemic?
Le-Ha
Artemio
Le-Ha
Artemio
Le-Ha
Final Considerations and Conclusion
References
Index
