Globalization, Geography, and the Liberation of Overseas Study

Abstract

Overseas study is an unparalleled method of promoting cross-cultural understanding, an appreciation of difference, and a relational sense of identity. However, U.S. colleges and universities increasingly employ the myth of strong globalization, which purportedly makes the world more uniform, integrated, and interdependent, in order to justify overseas study as a core component of broader internationalization strategies. Notwithstanding the rhetoric of cross-cultural learning, many key players within the enterprise of study abroad fail to recognize the dissonance between the dogma of strong globalization and the practice of overseas study. This article explores the problematic, contradictory discourses of overseas study, and argues that geography is strategically positioned within academia to emerge as a major driving force of a progressive study-abroad initiative.

Key Words:

• globalization
• study abroad
• international education

Acknowledgments

The ideas that emerge in this article have evolved from our involvement as students, faculty, and program staff in a variety of international education and overseas study activities including experiences at Temple University, Michigan State University, Western Illinois University, Western Michigan University, and Indiana University. Also critically important was funding from the National Science Foundation (SES-353969) for a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) project.

James J. Biles is an associate professor in the International Studies program at City College, CUNY, New York, New York, USA. His primary research interests focus on the intersection of globalization, livelihoods, and informality, particularly in southern Mexico.

Todd Lindley is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography at IndianaUniversity in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. His research interests include transnationalism, migration, population, development, and globalization. He is currently completing work on a two-year project that examines intercountry adoption of children as a component of globalization.