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Category Stories: Racial and Ethnic Identity

  • Navigating Race, Gender, Class, and Nationality in Buenos Aires

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    Navigating Race, Gender, Class, and Nationality in Buenos Aires

    Navigating Race, Gender, Class, and Nationality in Buenos Aires Intersectionality and Study Abroad  During my time abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I became very aware of the importance of the intersectionalities of our identities. My identity as a black woman and an American from a low-income neighborhood really made my experience much different from my…

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  • Everywhere is a Classroom: Learning Through Internships Abroad

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    Everywhere is a Classroom: Learning Through Internships Abroad

    Before I moved to Melbourne, I thought of my semester abroad like a hands-on research experience. As an Urban Studies major, I had spent years studying and discussing all aspects of urban life — city governance, urban planning, social inequity, affordability, transportation, design, and so on. Over and over again, critical discourse on how to…

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  • In-and-out: A Nigerian-American’s Exploratory Ethnic Immersion in London

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    In-and-out: A Nigerian-American’s Exploratory Ethnic Immersion in London

    When I departed for my semester abroad at King’s College London (KCL), I had a feeling that I would be diving into an ethnic experience that would be difficult to articulate. On one hand, I would be travelling to the UK through an American study abroad program, but I knew through research and conversations with…

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  • Retaining My Kazakh Identity While Studying Abroad

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    Retaining My Kazakh Identity While Studying Abroad

    Probably one of my biggest fears when going abroad to study in the US 3 years ago and again upon my arrival in UK was that I would not be able to stay true to my culture and values held by my people. Kazakhstan, being a country of only 17 million people, does not have…

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  • Indigeneity: New Ways of Thinking

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    Indigeneity: New Ways of Thinking

    While spending a semester in Melbourne, Australia, Aaron Smithson was prompted to think critically about the state’s colonial past and his own complicity in the oppression of Indigenous communities by living on native land and using native resources. https://youtu.be/VPC4BcLqdyM Aaron Smithson is an Urban Studies, History & Theory of Architecture, and History Major at Columbia University and studied…

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  • How to take Care of Afro Hair in London

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    How to take Care of Afro Hair in London

    My first question when I arrived in London was: Where am I going to get my hair cut? I usually go to my local barbershop in Brooklyn, so as someone new to the neighborhood, I had to ask around before I found a barber I could frequent. Thankfully, there are many different options for styling…

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  • Mooncakes and Macaroni & Cheese: A Chinese-American in Ireland

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    Mooncakes and Macaroni & Cheese: A Chinese-American in Ireland

    At the beginning of my study abroad experience, if you told me I would cook macaroni and cheese four times in two weeks, I would have thought you were joking.  But then it happened, in Ireland of all places.  I, a Chinese-American girl, was requested to cook this dish for my German housemates and their…

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  • Easy Ways to Connect to the Caribbean in London

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    Easy Ways to Connect to the Caribbean in London

    London has a large population of immigrants from the continent of Africa as well as the Caribbean. As such, it can be easy to make yourself feel at home as an Afro-Caribbean person in London. Nigeria, Somalia and Jamaica are just a few countries a part of the African diaspora that have a noticeable presence…

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  • Forging a New Path, Revisiting an Old One

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    Forging a New Path, Revisiting an Old One

    One of the reasons I studied abroad was to explore what I was capable of doing on my own. I wanted to have a completely unknown adventure and to further myself from the comfort of my own home and family.Little did I know, I would encounter more family and be welcomed into a new home…

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  • Navigating My Identity as a White Woman Abroad

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    Navigating My Identity as a White Woman Abroad

    Looking back on my expectations In the United States, one of the many privileges that I enjoy as a white female is the ability to blend in with the majority. When traveling, that’s not always the case. Because I have fair skin and blonde hair, in Argentina I have found that I’m often the object…

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