‘Reconceptualising internationalisation through students’ eyes’: Findings from a biographical study of female, international doctoral students in an Irish University

This paper presents findings from an Irish qualitative study of postgraduate, female, international students. It focuses on their narrations of internationalisation, in respect of events leading them to become international students, and their reflections on their academic, interpersonal and societal experiences in Ireland. International students are generally understudied and marginalised as metaphorical ‘others’ within global education policies, often being reduced to mere recruitment and financial targets and units of analysis. However, this study shows that international students transcend widespread but static assumptions about them being in academic and social deficit when transitioning to life in another country and negotiating new educational contexts. Significantly, our interviewees discursively positioned themselves in multifarious ways in relation to Irish higher education curricula, drawing on various discourses to define their internationalisation journeys. Although the sample size is small and confined to female postgraduates, our data suggests that university policies in Ireland and internationally largely overlook the multidimensionality of international doctoral students’ experiences. In our conclusion, we tentatively suggest ways in which international students’ academic and intercultural experiences could in the future be enriched, and how international students themselves could more fruitfully contribute to Irish higher education.

Anti-blackness, surface-level diversity continues to matter: what must we do?

PurposeThis paper discusses the author's perceptions of anti-blackness, her research on “surface-level” diversity and her recommendations for faculty, administrators and allies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a personal account, drawn from the author's background and experiences teaching and studying diversity. It discusses research on American Blacks' unique experiences with police violence and discrimination in employment, housing, customer service, healthcare and education consistent with anti-blackness.FindingsAnti-blackness pervades Blacks' everyday experiences, including in academic institutions.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is a viewpoint paper. Researchers should study anti-blackness, looking specifically at Blacks' organizational and societal experiences.Practical implicationsThe author provides suggestions for faculty regarding sharing their research findings, teaching about anti-blackness in diversity, human resources, organizational behavior, management and other courses along with mentoring doctoral students. Recommendations for administration to help ensure that Black faculty are hired, valued and supported are also provided.Social implicationsEfforts to identify, acknowledge and dismantle anti-blackness are critical to Blacks and are important to improving diversity, inclusion and equity in society.Originality/valueThis paper provides the author's perspective on anti-blackness, using her personal perceptions and experiences, coupled with research evidence. The author provides suggestions for faculty and administrators based on decades of research and experience in the field and being Black in an anti-black society.

From Inscriptions to Texts

This chapter notes the value of the inscriptional record in revealing a comprehensive picture of Muslim settlements in pre-fifteenth century Gujarat, and in suggesting the importance of Sufis and other learned men among those settlements. However, the dominant inscriptional mode of historical recording in pre-fifteenth century Gujarat reflects the variegated ecologies within which Muslim communities developed with distinct historical and societal experiences. The narrative process of capturing the history of the region, and of the Muslim community within it, began in the fifteenth century at the conjuncture of two processes: the formation of a new state under the Gujarat Sultans and the sanctification of the sultanate territory by Sufi preceptors, particularly Aḥmad Khattū (d. 1445). These two developments, underpinned not so much by any ruptures at the turn of the fifteenth century than the confluence of long-term historical processes, together shaped the textual articulations of the history of the Muslim community in Gujarat.

Introduction

There is no one universal ‘social’ but a multitude of socials that characterise our societal experiences. These multiple experiences of the ‘social’ influence the ideas we form of the social, as well as give cognitive access to the different socials. The introduction sets out the motivation for the study of the social and discusses the basic approaches to the idea of social ontology. How do we define the everyday social? Why is the study of the everyday so important to formulate the idea of the social? Are there different socials? It then goes on to discuss the major themes in the other chapters of the book.

Multimodal Metaphors and Advertising: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Use of Behavioural Multimodal Metaphors

Summary The main purpose of this paper is to analyze how culture is embedded in the way viewers from different language backgrounds conceptualize and interpret the same multimodal metaphors. Therefore, interaction between metaphor and culture is hence a crucial aspect of research in this study. Following Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) and Forceville’s (1996, 2009) approaches, this paper examines how a comparative study undertaken from a cross-cultural perspective can shed light on how culture is an influential factor that can trigger changes in interpretations and reactions in the viewers. Data for this research were gathered with the help of 240 participants taken from 8 different language backgrounds. The subjects of this study were supplied with a questionnaire which consisted of three multimodal metaphors and 8 questions. In particular, I want to focus on the following research questions: (1) Which figurative B-term do different cultures conceptualize in a multimodal metaphor? (2) How aggressive are these multimodal metaphors considered by the participants of the study? On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that not only the cultural background but also the personal has some influence on the way respondents interpret multimodal metaphors. The reactions identified in the responses of the subjects are influenced by different factors: religion, personal and societal experiences, beliefs, etc.

Re-conceptualizing Civil Society: The Debate Continues With Specific Reference to Contemporary Senegal

This article challenges the civil society argument based on its failure to correctly and appropriately conceptualize Africa's societal experiences. To this end, the article explores Senegal as a case study to show how the idiosyncrasy of societal development has constructed and produced different types of associational life that is not grasped within the liberal preconditions of civil society. Senegal was selected to make a deductive analysis. If we can prove that Senegalese society, which is commonly cited in the liberal argument as a vibrant model of civil society, is neither acting within the conventional frameworks nor meets the conventional preconditions of civil society, the argument on the flaws of the liberal conception of civil society will stand.