Global Scholar Stories

Welcome back to Global Scholar Stories! In this extended trailer, you will hear what is currently cooking for Season 2 around intercultural sensitivity, followed by a conversation with two guests from our very own Digital Storytelling Team – Dr. Sarah Schiffecker, the Director of Social Media and Györgyi Mihályi, the Editor of the Global Connections Newsletter.

This final episode for Season 1 begins with Dr. Cruz’s reflections on her identities being a scholar-practitioner, a woman, and a parent/mother in the field of international higher education and the importance of self-care for professional and personal well-being. As our Cross-Border Narratives Section Editor, she also talks about how to integrate personal experiences in scholarly writing, followed by practical guidance around developing your academic voice and the writing process.

In this episode, Dr. Lisa Unangst reflects on how her curiosity for an inquiry has been guiding her scholarship. As our Book Review Section Editor, she also talks about centering the previously underrepresented perspectives including that of the Global South, the use of technology to manage your readings, and some creative approaches to writing book reviews. The latter conversation also includes an overview of the new mentorship program by the STAR Scholars Network.

What critical questions do we need to ask ourselves when researching international students? In this episode, our Research-in-Context Section Editor Dr. Jenna Mittelmeier talks about the need to challenge the deficit narratives. Tune in to hear more about her own journey in building empathy with international students, seeing writing as "an art form that we participate in" and how your whole self matters in navigating the academic career.

Continuing with the theme of academic writing, Dr. Cora Lingling Xu will talk about writing groups in this episode. What does it mean to write with a community? How does it work? Dr. Xu shares her transformative experiences by being part of writing groups, and how it played a role in her path to becoming a scholar as a first-generation international student.

In Season 1, you will hear from a series of scholars about how they developed their relationship with writing, and how they became authentic and strong writers in their field. In this episode, Dr. Stephanie K. Kim shares her story on how she evolved as a writer and a scholar across coasts, cultures, and countries and helps us demystify the academic publishing process.

In this inaugural episode, our editorial team welcomes you to the JIS community! To hear more about the journal’s roots, future directions, and our growing global community, tune into a conversation with the Founder & Executive Editor, Dr. Krishna Bista, the Editor-In-Chief, Dr. Chris R. Glass, and the Senior Editor Dr. Stephanie K. Kim, who share their vision to be inclusive of the new voices in international education.

Global Scholar Stories is a podcast by the Journal of International Students. We share the personal stories of scholars behind their research in international education.