Research with International Students (RIS) is an interdisciplinary network of global scholars whose research includes international students as participants or co-researchers. Many of our network members focus on the experiences and treatment of international students within higher education. We take a critical approach to our research and critique common deficit framings of international students in research and practice. Collectively, our research frequently considers issues of power, privilege, ethics, inclusivity, and fairness. We critique issues embedded into our research field such as, but not limited to, biases, prejudices, xenophobia, racism, and coloniality.
This website brings together a wide range of resources to support researchers in creating more critical research designs related to international students. It is a living resource which is constantly being revised, edited, and added to. As a network, we value open access research, community, mentorship, and support.
This network is a scholarly collective and we welcome contributions and ideas from fellow scholars (please contact us!).
Network co-founders:
The RIS network was co-founded by:
Jenna Mittelmeier
Jenna Mittelmeier (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in International Education at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on practices with international students and their treatment within universities, host societies, and through research. Coming from an interdisciplinary background, she is interested in how international education research intersects with other disciplines. She writes on this topic as a migrant scholar and former international student.
Sylvie Lomer
Sylvie Lomer (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in Policy and Practice at the University of Manchester, where her research expertise focuses on international higher education. Her first book, Recruiting International Students in Higher Education, critically examined UK policy on international students. Follow-up work on blended learning pedagogies led to an interest in how deficit narratives of international students shape pedagogic practices. She is currently building on her expertise in documentary and secondary data analysis to develop creative methodologies in relation to international students as knowledge collaborators. Sylvie also convenes the Higher Education Research Group, HERE@Manchester.
Early Career Researcher Network
The RIS Early Career Researcher Network can be contacted at: ris.ecrnetwork@gmail.com. This chapter of the network is led and organised by:
Andreana Pastena
Andreana Pastena is an Assistant Professor in English Studies at the Univesitat de les Illes Balears, Spain. Previously, she was an EUTOPIA-SIF Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK. Her research focuses on language biographies and practices, and the development of intercultural interactions and competences in internationalised Higher Education. She is also a certified language teacher and intercultural trainer.
Vera Spangler
Vera Spangler (she/her) is a PhD researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, UK. Her doctoral project is a three-country higher education ethnography exploring knowledge legitimacy and the role of international student mobility in the (re)production of global hierarchies. Vera is a co-convenor of the RIS ECR Network, coordinates activities for the ECR reading group, and also serves as co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Postgraduate Forum.
Gourangi Kumar
Gourangi Kumar holds a Master’s in Social Policy from Sciences Po Paris, and her research focuses on the role of cultural capital and social mobility trends within higher education. Her work provides a particular emphasis on the experiences of South Asian diaspora students. In addition, she serves as a Teaching Assistant for the Sciences Po Summer School.
Event Coordinators
Our Events are coordinated by:
Harshul Singh
Harshul Singh is an early-career researcher and graduate of SOAS University of London. His research engages with decolonial praxis, critical caste studies, and ethnographic inquiry, with a regional focus on South Asia. He is passionate about cultivating inclusive academic dialogue and encouraging epistemic and ethical reflexivity in research practices.
Mohit Dudeja
Mohit Dudeja (they/she/he) is the Founder and President of Mendlife Foundation (India and Canada), and is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education and the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada. They are also a PhD Candidate in Educational Studies at Lakehead University. Their research explores the internationalization of education, with a focus on social justice, queer inclusion, and transnational identities in higher education. They write from the standpoint of a queer migrant scholar and international student, committed to advancing equity in academic and community spaces.
Blog Coordinator
The RIS Blog is organised and led by:
Yifan Liu
Yifan Liu is a PhD Candidate in Social Justice Education at OISE, University of Toronto, specializing in Diaspora and Transnational Studies. Her research interests include sociology of education, youth mobilities and (im)migration, and ethnocultural and linguistic diversity in education. Yifan’s recent work engages critically with international student mobilities, focusing on how transnationalism, racialization, family contexts, and institutional structures shape students’ educational experiences and constructions of belonging across transnational spaces.
Audio Interviews Podcast
The RIS Audio Interview Podcast is organised, led, and produced by:
Asuka Ichikawa
Asuka Ichikawa (she/her) is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Higher Education program at Boston College. As an international student originally from Japan, her research explores human/relationality-centered topics in internationalization with a focus on transnational student migration, immigration policy, intersectional identity development, and mental health.
Video Coordinator
Our Video Lecture Series is coordinated by:
Ying Yang
Ying Yang is a postdoctoral fellow at the Education University of Hong Kong, an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Manchester, and a WG2 Co-stakeholder Advisor of COST Action ENIS Network. Her research interests include access to international higher education, international student recruitment and application, longitudinal qualitative research methods, educational (in)equality and international students’ experiences.
Online Writing Retreats
The RIS Online Writing Retreats are organised by:
Trang Nguyen
Trang Nguyen is a PhD student at the University of Liverpool. She is passionate about research in international higher education and migration studies. Her research focuses on the social stratification of Vietnamese international students’ aspirations and transnational lived experiences in the UK.
Nannan Lu
Nannan Lu is a PhD candidate at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Before pursuing her doctorate, she completed her Master’s degree in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education as a Chinese international student in the United States and subsequently served as a university lecturer working with international students in China. These experiences have shaped her current research interests, which include international student mobility, international students’ experiences, and higher education internationalization, both in China and globally.
Thank yous
We are grateful for the contribution of several colleagues who are not involved in the everyday organisation of this website and network, but have nonetheless provided valuable support. This includes:
Kalyani Unkule: Professor at Jindal Global Law School, who has significantly influenced our thinking on this topic as co-editor of our Research with International Students book
Several colleagues who have contributed to compiling resources for this website: Heather Cockayne, Parise Carmichael-Murphy, Said Al-Furqani, Daian Huang, Sandra Clare, and Yaqiao Liu.
Authors in our Research with International Students book, who made resource suggestions for this website
This network and website are unfunded, but our thinking has been influenced by research projects funded by:
- Advance HE
- Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE)
- British Academy / Leverhulme
- German Academic Exchange Network (DAAD)
- Spencer Foundation
We are grateful to the University of Manchester Library for providing funding to make our Research with International Students book open access.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.