Nomads in diaspora space: exploring women's identity work in the University

Abstract

How individuals position themselves as ‘students’ within the university landscape can provide insight into the personal experience of entering this environment. This article will explore how one group of female students narrated their identity work as they moved through the first year of study in an Australian university. These students were all first in the family to attend university and some had had a significant gap between educational experiences. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals at four points during the year. Interviews generated rich description, revealing how students chose to articulate the growth and development of their identities, the contradictions this process engendered as well as the ways in which existing and new identities were blended. The article draws on the concept of diaspora space (Brah, 1996) to contextualise these narratives and explores their wider socio-cultural significance.

Key words:

• diaspora space
• first-generation students
• mature-age students
• student identity formation
• normadic moments