The Early Stories of Indian International Students at U.S. Universities
Indians have been attending U.S. institutions of higher education for well over a century. In this long history, Indian students have indelibly impacted campus practices and activism in the United States, while also participating in the shaping of culture and politics in the South Asian subcontinent. This website draws on archival sources to narrate some of the ways in which international students have straddled the racial, gendered, legal, religious, and linguistic difficulties that an American education entails.
In today’s era, when the international students in the United States number in the hundreds of thousands, this website gestures towards a past that was no less contentious than the situation faced by international students today. Issues like cultural difference, visa woes, and transnational political activism were of major concern a hundred years ago, just as they remain in the present. By highlighting the ways in which some of the earliest cohorts of international students addressed their difficulties, this website hopes inspire other international students to learn from their past and take an active role in their education.
This website is a work in process. If you are interested in collaborating on it, please send me an email.
