Bicultural negotiation of South Asian immigrant female faculty in the US academy

ABSTRACT

This study acknowledges and contextualizes the work of first-generation immigrant South Asian women faculty by examining how their bicultural negotiation impacts their experience in the U.S. Academy. This qualitative study included 17 tenured or tenure-track faculty from different US regions, and across multiple four-year university types, including liberal arts colleges, public research universities, regional public universities, elite private research universities, and private universities. This study highlighted the unique way South Asian American women negotiate their bicultural existence. It situated the concept of “bicultural negotiation” within a cultural values conflict framework, which is used to explain conflicts South Asian women have when making decisions. The data suggest that it may be prudent to reframe how bicultural negotiation is understood and studied. It may be useful to conceptually examine the notion of hybridity, and how it reflexively fosters bicultural negotiation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew A. Witenstein

Matthew A. Witenstein is Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Dayton. His US work focuses on immigrants in higher education and international educational experiences while his international/comparative education research focuses on higher educational quality, organization and governance issues. He is co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan book series “South Asian Education Policy, Research and Practice”, Associate Editor of the journal Diaspora, Indigenous and Minority Education, and author of numerous peer reviewed articles (including in Teachers College Record, About Campus and Ethnic and Racial Studies) and book chapters. Matthew currently serves as Secretary and Executive Board Member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) while having served CIES in various leadership roles for more than a decade. He has been an invited speaker at higher education institutions, ministry and government agencies throughout the US and South Asia.