Examining Embodied Struggles in Cultural Reentry Through Intersectional Reflexivity

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors approach cultural reentry by emphasizing the body, affect, and performance. To do so, they methodologically adapt Jones and Calafell's (2012) call for intersectional reflexivity. That is, through their collaborative sharing of stories, they attend to our intersecting identities. Particularly, the authors critique implications of their own global mobility in the structural systems of privilege and marginalization. They do so by reflecting on their embodied experiences of crossing borders and struggling with the notion of home(s). The three themes that outline their narratives are racialized mobility, the feeling of being away from “home,” and performing in-betweenness.

KEYTERMS:

• cultural reentry
• global mobility
• performance
• intersectional reflexivity
• international and intercultural communication

Notes

1. I struggle with the renaming of my city and still refer to it as Bombay. This is despite the fact that the renaming of Mumbai connotes a pronationalistic and decolonization move. I am sometimes stuck identifying my city through the Portuguese and British colonizers' naming and therefore I retain both names.

2. India does not recognize dual citizenship. There are two forms of “citizenship” for non-Indian residents: OCI is Oversees Citizen of India and PIO is Person of Indian Origin, who hold a passport in a country other than Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This grants me lifetime access into Indian borders without a “visa.”

3. NRI refers to any person of Indian heritage living outside of India (for further critical evaluations, see Amrute, 2010). The term NRI was created by the Indian government in the 1970s to enable foreign currency exchange by Indian citizens living abroad (Mallapragada, 2006). In addition, it also facilitated repatriation of earnings at flexible rates (Nayyar, 1994). However, the term “denotes a mental rather than a physical state, the community joined up not so much by geography as by a web of shared cultural influences” (Aftab, 2002, p. 92).