(Re) Presenting Study Abroad through the 'Colonial Library'

Abstract

As the U.S. continues to prioritize the internationalization of higher education, studyabroad participation has doubled in the last decade. To correspond with this increased interest and prepare students for an intercultural workforce, the study abroad programs of colleges and universities have diversified travel destinations to include countries on the continent of Africa, most of which have colonial histories. Relying on scholarship from postcolonial studies, critical tourism studies, and higher education, this analysis addresses the social imaginary that anchors study abroad programs in such host countries on the African Continent. Specifically, it concentrates upon how and why the depiction of Africa sustains problematic images and narratives in continuously running promotional campaigns on study abroad websites. This critical analysis then examined how closely such representation of Africa is subconsciously included, if not intentionally reproduced, in colonial depictions by deploying the insights of Congolese postcolonial scholar, V.Y. Mudimbe, whose work arguably discloses the subtle distortions in the mass marketing of studying in Africa to American students. Indeed, it suggested the commodification of study abroad programming reanimates often othered and subjugated images of Africa for the students, staff, parents, and faculty who interact in the institutions of study abroad learning. The case is made through research methods grounded in the content analysis of 1022 images of study abroad programs collected and analyzed using Mudimbe's postcolonial framework. This method yields a more complete and nuanced understanding of what images are projected of Africa, as well as which pedagogical practices are highlighted in study abroad educational recruitment, management, and delivery that sustains 3 such learning as colleges and universities struggle to internationalize their higher education programming. The findings of this study strongly indicate that the representation of Africa by U.S. colleges and universities aligns closely with the subjugated representations as Mudimbe's critique asserts. Additionally, this cultural continuity to earlier colonial era themes and tropes too often return images tied to wild jungles, destitution, starving children, and vast empty landscapes to animate the imagery of the locales that study abroad programs focus upon by going to Africa. U.S. higher education institutions play a key role in regenerating and reshaping colonial narratives for those enrolling in study abroad programs whose travel purportedly pursues expanding and diversifying their participants' intercultural learning goals. My work's findings point out both practical difficulties and academic contradictions created by these educational endeavors