GSLR 2025: Revisiting Place in International Education

This issue of the Global Studies Literature Review (GSLR) expounds upon the NAFSA 2025 Annual Conference & Expo theme and focuses on "Purpose, Place, and Partnership," with pieces authored by a wide variety of voices—faculty members, graduate students, independent researchers, and international education professionals.

This topic provides a space for international educators to take a critical perspective towards what ‘place’ means by (re)considering traditional thoughts in the field, current questions and concerns, and what the future may hold. Place has become more complicated as international education and exchange is increasingly virtual, affected by various global geopolitical tensions, and where the local and global are intertwined.

View the NAFSA website for information about past issues of GSLR.

About the editor: Melissa Whatley, PhD, is an assistant professor of higher education at the College of William & Mary. Her research applies mixed methods and advanced quantitative analytic approaches to improve the understanding of policies and practices that diversify both who is able to access international education and the outcomes of these opportunities, especially within the context of U.S. community colleges. Through her teaching, Whatley aims to present quantitative research methods in a way that is accessible to diverse students with the goal of promoting inclusion in this area of education research. Whatley authored An Introduction to Quantitative Analysis for International Educators (2022) and International Higher Education Research: State of the Field (2020; coauthored with Bryan McAllister-Grande), and she has also published her research widely in journals such as Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Studies in International Education, and Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. She is an active researcher, writer, presenter, and contributor to various professional associations, including NAFSA.

Table of Contents

• Foreword by Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship Knowledge Community Chair Stream
• Editor’s Introduction
• International Education is People Not Place(s)
  • Essay by: David Wick, Amelia Dietrich, and Sara van der Horst
• A Lens of Simultaneity: Illuminating International Students’ Identities, Agency, and Role in Global Social Justice Movements
  • Review of: Korean International Students and the Making of Racialized Transnational Elites
  • Review by: Sarang Kim
• Global Learning Closer to Home: Advocating for Domestic Study Away
  • Review of: Putting the Local in Global Education: Models for Transformative Learning Through Domestic Off-Campus Programs
  • Review by: Allison Yap
• Rooted in Learning: Authenticity in Education
  • Review of: The Power of Place: Authentic Learning Through Place-Based Education
  • Review by: Omobonike Odegbami
• Expanding Place in Higher Education Through Digital Internationalization
  • Review of: Digital Internationalization in Higher Education: Beyond Virtual Exchange
  • Review by: Abigail Smith and Yuka Jibiki
• Intentional Internationalization and Unintended Consequences
  • Review of: Unintended Consequences of Internationalization in Higher Education: Comparative International Perspectives on the Impacts of Policy and Practice
  • Review by: Xi Cao and Emily Marchese
• Mapping Power: U.S. Influence and Inequities in International Higher Education
  • Review of: U.S. Power in International Higher Education
  • Review by: Judy Kim
• Internationalization of Higher Education Through Research with International Students
  • Review of: Research with International Students: Critical Conceptual and Methodological Considerations
  • Review by: Lígia Rocha Cavalcante Feitosa and Marcelline Bengaly
• Rethinking (Dis)Place(ment) in an Interdependent World
  • Review of: Opening Up the University: Teaching and Learning with Refugees
  • Review by: Molly McSweeney
• Being Psychic and Racially Nowhere: Asian International Students' Mental Health
  • Review of: Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation: On the Social and Psychic Lives of Asian Americans
  • Review by: Qianzi Cong