Written by Jenna Mittelmeier
As we approach the end of 2024, we’re reflective of how much RIS has grown in such a short space of time. Following the publication of our book in late 2023, we felt there was still so much left to discuss and debate within the field. Research with International Students has organically grown into a thriving network this year (now with thousands of followers / members!), extending conversations about what it means to develop ethical and critical research in this area.
We want to say thank you to everyone who visited the RIS website, joined an event, or contributed to developing resources. Because so much has developed this year, we thought it might also be valuable to summarise the RIS 2024 in Review. Without further ado, here’s what happened with our community this year:
Social media and communication channels
As of this year, there are now more ways to engage with RIS, share resources, and connect with other scholars, including:
RIS Early Career Researcher Network
The RIS ECR network was established this year in recognition that community and discussion space is valuable for our members in the earliest stages of their careers. This network was founded and organised by Andreana Pastena, Gourangi Kumar, and Arif Abu. Since its founding, they have organised an ECR reading group (led by Vera Spangler) and several events.
RIS Online Writing Retreats
Drawing from a suggestion at our RIS 2023 Conference, we organised a series of online writing retreats. These are spaces where scholars can be productive together, working simultaneously online on their individual writing. The writing retreats were organised by Luman Zhou, Shannon Hutcheson, Trang Nguyen, and Nannan Lu.
Discipline Guides
One of the core values of RIS is that research on this topic is inherently interdisciplinary. However, we noted that there is limited interdisciplinary citations in many publications and sought to encourage more reading across disciplines. Our Disciplinary Guide series was established this year to support this, providing quick (3-5 pages) introductions to disciplines of study relevant to research with international students. This year we published guides for:
- (Engaged) Anthropology – by Vera Spangler
- History – by Anna Kent
- Migration Studies – by Thomas Brotherhood
- Decolonial Studies – by Sumeya Loonat and Richard Hall
- International Relations – by Kalyani Unkule
- Language Studies – by Vijay A. Ramjattan
We are keen to publish more of these, so please contact us if you have a discipline you’d like to write about.
Doctoral thesis and dissertation database
We developed a database of published doctoral theses and dissertations related to research with international students and research about the broader internationalisation of higher education. This brings together hundreds of theses published since 2014. We are grateful to Yaqiao Liu for her contribution to developing this.
Podcast
Asuka Ichikawa has developed the RIS Audio Interviews podcast, which interviews global scholars whose work focuses on research with international students. There have been two episodes published so far, including:
More episodes are on the way, which we look foward to publishing in 2025.
Blog posts
Our RIS Blog has made posts on a wide range of topics this year. Here are some of the most read for 2024:
- International students: Is it an innocent label? by Riadh Ghemmour
- The role of international office professionals in research with international students by Betül Bulut-Sahin
- Intersecting research with international students and the genocide in Gaza by Jenna Mittelmeier and Sylvie Lomer
We have a great line-up of upcoming blogs in 2025, so we look forward to more ideas being reflected on and discussed in this space.
Webinars and video lectures
RIS hosted a number of online webinars in 2024, which is a space we aim to develop more in the year to come. This includes our “Beyond the Reading” series, which interviewed scholars about their recent publications.
At the end of the year, we also published a video series curated by Chrystal A. George Mwangi and Melissa Whatley (edited by Amanda R. Corso), focusing on ‘What does RIS mean to you?’. This was recorded with our members, reflecting on what it means to conduct research with international students.
Sponsoring the Journal of Global Higher Education (JGHE)
Another part of RIS’s core mission is open access research, where all the work we do is free and openly available for everyone. We have felt disappointed in the lack of open access spaces to publish high quality and critical research with international students, so are pleased to co-sponsor (with the Critical Internationalization Studies Network) the launch of a new independent and open access journal, the Journal of Global Higher Education (JGHE).
The journal will ‘officially’ launch with a first issue in 2025 and be open for submissions shortly after.
In summary and looking ahead
Putting all this together shows that RIS is a vibrant and active community with a shared goal of developing better and more critical research with international students. Seeing this space grow has been most exciting and we are grateful to everyone who contributes to making RIS the supportive community it is rapidly becoming.
We have so much to look forward to in 2025, filling us with hope for the year ahead. This includes:
- Our 2025 Online Conference: “Finding Purpose in Research with International Students” (March 10 – 13)
- An ECR session on aligning research with international students with personal ethical values (details to come soon)
- An RIS online scholarly zine-making workshop (details to come soon)
- A webinar focusing on the intersectionalities of queer international students (details to come soon)
But more than anything, this network exists to serve what the community wants and needs. Therefore, if you have ideas for something you’d like to contribute in 2025, please reach out! We look forward to working with you and seeing what the new year brings our network.
Thank you for making RIS what it is!