Outsiders Within: College Sport as an Avenue to Integrate International Students

The increasingly volatile social, cultural, and political environment in the United States has made it difficult for U.S. institutions of higher learning to retain and integrate international students, especially those from East Asian countries. Drawing upon social identity theory and the acculturation process, this study explored how college sport contributes to international students’ university identification using narrative interviews with East Asian international students who attended college football events at a U.S. university. Findings revealed that international students identified with their co-national peers for socialization purposes at football events and identified with the football spectator subgroup through the influence of domestic students, which contributed to university identity. Theoretically, our research highlighted the dynamics between sport identification, university identity, and acculturation by showing how college sport spectatorship can foster university identification but also create cultural distance within the university community. Findings also offer practical guidelines on how universities can use college sport to initiate organic social interactions between students from different cultures and empower international students to identify as essential members of universities.

Leveraging rhetorical style to reduce the existential threat of inclusive messaging

Diversity and representation are among the most pressing issues facing the modern world. Communications designed to promote diversity involve numerous dimensions. Here, I focused on two separable dimensions: What is conveyed by a message (inclusive vs. exclusive messaging), and how that message is expressed (pluralistic vs. non-pluralistic rhetoric). Inclusive messages and pluralistic rhetoric emphasize the validity of many different solutions to life's challenges. Exclusive messaging and non-pluralistic rhetoric instead convey one valid answer. I tested whether non-pluralistic rhetorical style (vs. pluralistic rhetorical style) can be leveraged to buffer the existential threat posed by inclusive (vs. exclusive) message content. Study 1 (N [equals] 1,581) showed that exposure to inclusive messaging about what it means to be American led to lower meaning in life than exclusive messaging, or a control passage. Study 2 (N [equals] 1,218) showed that conveying an inclusive message about American identity using non-pluralistic rhetoric buffered this existential threat, leading to higher meaning in life than pluralistic expressions of inclusive ideals. Non-pluralistic rhetoric also enhanced certainty, and certainty mediated the effect of non-pluralistic (vs. pluralistic) rhetoric on meaning in life. Study 3 (N [equals] 556) sought to conceptually replicate these patterns in the context of university identity. Implications and future direction for the science of ideology, well-being, and diversity, are discussed.

Identity on Private Universities’ Billboards in Yogyakarta

This research discusses identity as the visual means of private universities to attract prospective students. The data was collected by documenting billboard advertisements located on the arterial road of the City of Yogyakarta that contain visual and linguistic aspects. The gathered data are four billboards of private universities. Applying the multimodal analysis of Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, this study examines the billboard text to understand the visual and linguistic aspects as well as the relation between them to construct the commodification of education discourses. This research has found that identity becomes a highlighted aspect of the billboards of private universities. The visualization of the identity appears as on physical characters and attributes wore by the students or the models. There are three identities generally appearing, (1) university identity, through the alma mater jacket; (2) tribal/ethnic identity, through the physical appearance of the models; and (3) religious identity, through the fashion style. The slogans—e.g. ‘Welcome, the Smart and Humanist Generation’ and Excellent, Inclusive, Humanist, [with] Integrity’—written on the billboards, from the perspective of linguistic, represent the ideology of the educational institutions. The slogan is not only an enhancer but also a means to build and modify the meaning of the advertisement. Furthermore, it also becomes the representation of what kind of higher-education services are offered by the institution. The modification of the message through identity issues shows exclusivity, while the cultural identity indicates the inclusivity on the campus.

Rankings in the political economy, neo-liberal and new institutional research (PRE-PRINT DRAFT). Saule Anafinova. ELTE Doctoral School of Education.

The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical literature review of studies or university identity change under the influence of global competition. The literature review is organized by the three theoretical perspectives - political economy, neo-liberalism and new institutionalism (Chirikov, 2016). The main idea of the literature review is to prove that although studies of rankings proliferate, the institutional approach gives the best insight into the phenomenon. Despite this fact, the institutional approach is underrepresented in the field. Oversight of the influence of global rankings on university identity can be observed.