Study abroad as ‘adventure’: globalist construction of host–home hierarchy and governed adventurer subjects

Abstract

This article examines how the discourse of adventure, prevalent in study-abroad advertisements, constructs hierarchical relations between the study-abroad students' host and home societies and interpellates the students as subjects. Through text analysis of two US-based guidebooks on study abroad, this article shows how the discourse of adventure constructs the host society as isolated, unknown, and behind the times, with an unsound educational system, and the students' home society as always accessible and up to date, with a sound education system. Through its intersection with valorization of immersion and ideologies of outcome-based education, the discourse also interpellates the students as ‘adventurers’ and governs their desires regarding how to learn (through exploration) and what to gain (‘global competence’). This article offers critical analyses of the little-examined globalizing project of study abroad and its effects that go beyond mere reproduction of imperial travels.

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