1. Summary of the article
The article examines how professors’ everyday behaviors signal inclusion or exclusion to international students and how these signals shape students’ academic goal pursuits and sense of belonging. Drawing on in-depth interviews with international students at two large U.S. research universities, the authors use a belongingness framework and resilience-based models of acculturation to analyze student narratives. They identify three key dynamics in student–faculty interactions: participation and inclusion (professors’ small, caring gestures that invite students into classroom dialogue), personal ways of knowing (students learning to connect their own experiences and identities to course content), and possible selves (professors acting as role models who influence students’ imagined futures). While most participants describe interactions marked by joy, trust, anticipation, and surprise, the study reveals sharp inequalities when looking at subgroups defined by academic preparedness and financial resources: students with low financial resources report more intense and varied experiences, and those with both low finances and low academic preparedness almost never describe positive faculty interactions. The authors argue that student–faculty relationships are central to international students’ well-being and success and that universities have an ethical responsibility to address exclusionary practices and neo-racist attitudes in academic spaces.
2. How it contributes to my project
This article directly supports my project, which explores the lived experiences of international students and the fragile, everyday process of “belonging” in a new academic and cultural environment. Glass et al.’s focus on small, ordinary interactions with professors gives me a strong theoretical lens for understanding and framing the moments I want to highlight in my own work: the awkward first office-hour visit, the teacher who slows down to check in after class, or the silence when help is not offered. Their concepts of participation and inclusion, personal ways of knowing, and possible selves help me think more precisely about what is actually happening in these scenes—how a comment in class can either open a space for an international student’s voice or quietly tell them “you don’t belong here.” The attention to uneven experiences across financial and academic backgrounds also reminds me not to treat “international students” as a single, unified group in my project, but to show how class, race, and preparedness shape very different trajectories. Finally, the article justifies why my project matters: if belonging is a fundamental psychological need tied to mental health and academic success, then documenting, visualizing, and complicating these student–faculty encounters is not just personal storytelling, but a way to make visible a structural issue in U.S. higher education.
3. This Saturday I completed the test shoot for the kitchen interview. I experimented with two camera angles, baked a Basque cake, and filmed part of the process as a rehearsal for my interview with Victor on Monday afternoon. The feedback I received was quite positive. Aniyah mentioned she would be interviewing four people, which also gave me a reference point for the interview length needed for my project. I also met with the librarian and received advice from Kristina. My target audience will focus on international students, rather than all “new” arrivals as I had initially envisioned.
4.
Since my project will ultimately be presented as a documentary, I plan to create a short film showcasing my work. I intend to film my interviewee Victor speaking while cooking, capturing a relaxed, leisurely atmosphere. I’ll also walk and talk with Victor, conducting the entire interview on the move and during activities.
Additionally, I’ve reached out to Kevin, a piano major at Berklee College of Music who currently resides in Philadelphia. Since his teacher is based here, he commutes between the two cities, returning to Boston every Wednesday. I will conduct a follow-up interview with him in the piano practice rooms on campus.