Engendering International Education: US students and Latin American ?machismo?

KARINA FELITTI; ANDREA RIZZOTTI

Dublin

Congreso; X IASSCS Conference, Literacies and Sexualities in Cultural, Fictional, Real, and Virtual Worlds: Past, Present, Future Perfect?; 2015

Dublin City University - IASSCS

International students receive information about the culture and the socio political situation of the country they decided to go for studying abroad, which generally focuses on health and safety, and provides tips to be ready for the cross-cultural immersion. Related to gender topics, if the destination is located in Latin America, the majority of the information remarks the existence of different expressions of machismo and how females have to handle it (for example, in the case of street´s cat calls). In Buenos Aires, U.S. female students often live this experience but they also notice the individual and collective behavior of Argentines -particularly those of younger generations that are not willing to tolerate it. The students also realize that since 2007 there has been a woman elected 2 times. This presentation explores the beliefs, opinions, and experiences of a group of 50 American college students who participated in a program of international education between 2010 and 2014 in Argentina about these topics. We wonder about the information and training they received in the US before departure to Argentina and how they live the regulations and practices of gender and sexuality once they arrived in Buenos Aires. From the analysis of interviews and written testimonies of the students, and publications of US universities and companies that organize these programs, we intend to contribute to current research on international education and intercultural education, highlighting the contributions of gender and feminist studies for engendering and sexualizing study abroad experiences.