Efforts are underway to globalize sociology in the United States through study abroad experiences. At the same time, there is a push to extend the reach of such programs to students of color. We use student journal entries and fieldnotes from trips to South Africa to analyze how students of color grapple with a disruption of identity in a Black majority setting. Findings reveal that students were challenged by new axes of identity, namely, language and place, and were confronted with their own relative privilege. Sociology can play a critical role in helping students maximize benefit from such experiences if undergraduate curricula incorporate additional axes of intersectionality and include more scholarship from Africa and the Diaspora. Moreover, study abroad programs need to devote significant time to structured debriefings in all pedagogical activities. This would provide faculty and students a space to productively manage and even embrace the disruption of identity.
AcquayeLucinda A.2012. “International Programs: Advancing Human Rights and Social Justice for African American Students.” Journal of Social Work Education48:763–84.
2.
AhmedSarah. 2007. “A Phenomenology of Whiteness.” Feminist Theory (2):149–68.
3.
BathurstLauraBrackBruce La. 2012. “Shifting the Locus of Intercultural Learning. Intervening Prior to and after Student Experiences Abroad.” Pp. 261–83 in Student Learning Abroad: What Our Students Are Learning, What They’re Not, and What We Can Do About It, edited by BergM. VandePaigeR. M.LouK. H. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
4.
BhandariRajikaBelyavinaRaiza. 2011. Evaluating and Measuring the Impact of Citizen Diplomacy: Current Status and Future Directions. New York, NY: Institute of International Education.
5.
BikoHlumelo. 2012. The Great African Society. Johannesburg, South Africa: Jonathan Ball Publishers.
BruxJacqueline M.FryBlake. 2009. “Multicultural Students in Study Abroad: Their Interests, Their Issues, and Their Constraints.” Journal of Studies in International Education20(10):1–19.
8.
CleverMollyMillerKaren S. 2019. “‘I Understand What They’re Going through’: How Socioeconomic Background Shapes the Student Service-Learning Experience.” Teaching Sociology47(3):204–18.
9.
CollinsPatricia Hill. 2019. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
10.
CooperRobinFleischerAnneCottonFatima A. 2012. “Building Connections: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Qualitative Research Students’ Learning Experiences.” Qualitative Report17(1):1–16.
11.
CoreRachel S.2017. “Assessing Global Learning in Short-Term Study Abroad: Population, Environment, and Society in Shanghai.” Teaching Sociology45(4):399–408.
12.
CrenshawKimberle. 1990. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review43(6):1241–99.
13.
DallingerCarolyn. 2017. “Achieving a Global Mind-Set at Home: Student Engagement with Immigrant Children.” Teaching Sociology45(4):358–67.
14.
DlaminiJacob. 2009. Native Nostalgia. Johannesburg, South Africa: Jacana Press.
15.
EberleThomas S.2014. “Phenomenology as a Research Method.” Pp. 184–202 in The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis, edited by FlickU. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
16.
GiuffrePattiSweetStephen. 2017. “Editors’ Comment: Incorporating Globalization in the Sociology Curriculum.” Teaching Sociology45(4):309–12.
GouwsAmanda. 2017. “Feminist Intersectionality and the Matrix of Domination in South Africa.” Agenda31(1):9–27.
19.
GrauerholzLizSettembrinoMarc. 2016. “Teaching Inequalities: Using Public Transportation and Visual Sociology to Make It Real.” Teaching Sociology44(3):200–11.
20.
HalseyJohn. 1990. “Teaching Sociology in an Overseas Program: The Uses of Marginality.” Teaching Sociology18(2):203–208.
21.
HunterMarkHachimiAtiqa. 2012. “Talking Class, Talking Race: Language, Class, and Race in the Call Center Industry in South Africa.” Social & Cultural Geography13(6):551–66.
LuptonDeborah, ed. 1999. Risk and Sociocultural Theory: New Directions and Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
24.
MattesRobert. 2015. “South Africa’s Emerging Black Middle Class: A Harbinger of Political Change?”Journal of International Development27(5):665–92.
25.
MoolmanBenita. 2013. “Rethinking ‘Masculinities in Transition’ in South Africa Considering the ‘Intersectionality’ of Race, Class, and Sexuality with Gender.” African Identities11 (1):93–105.
26.
NordmeyerKristjaneTeigTrishaBederaNicole. 2017. “‘Gender Utopias?’: U.S. Student Reflections on Studying Abroad in Norway and Sweden.” Teaching Sociology45(4):324–33.
ShupeEllen I.2013. “The Development of an Undergraduate Study Abroad Program: Nicaragua and the Psychology of Social Inequality.” Teaching of Psychology40(2):124–29.
29.
StallmanElizabethWoodruffGayle A.KasraviJinousCompDavid. 2010. “The Diversification of the Student Profile.” Pp. 115–60 in A History of U.S. Study Abroad: 1965-Present, edited by HoffaW.DePaulS. C. Carlisle, PA: Dickinson College.
30.
SwartzLeslie. 2013. “Oscar Pistorius and the Melancholy of Intersectionality.” Disability & Society28(8):1157–61.
31.
TapelaBarbara N.Omara-OjunguPeter H. 1999. “Towards Bridging the Gap between Wildlife Conservation and Rural Development in Post-apartheid South Africa: The Case of the Makuleke Community and the Kruger National Park.” South African Geographical Journal81(3):148–55.
32.
TellaOluwaseun. 2016. “Understanding Xenophobia in South Africa: The Individual, the State and the International System.” Insight on Africa8(2):142–58.
TonnelatStéphaneKornblumWilliam. 2017. International Express: New Yorkers on the 7 Train. New York: Columbia University Press.
35.
WillisTasha Y.2015. “‘And Still We Rise. . .’: Microaggressions and Intersectionality in the Study Abroad Experiences of Black Women.” Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad26:209–30.
ZondiSiphamandla. 2008. “Xenophobic Attacks: Towards an Understanding of Violence against African Immigrants in South Africa.” Africa Insight38(2):26–35.
