Between Academic Tourism and Student Mobility: Narratives of Students on the Move

More than ever before student mobility is playing an important role to fulfill the idea behind "becoming a global citizen". Whether private or public, universities all over the world are incuding in their mission statemets the commitment of attaining global citinsenship by their students.  US universities have a long tradition of sending students abroad (Hoffa 2007), in Europe they have developed a similar structure as a result of the Bolongna Process. The vast majority of students involved in mobility are non-degree students who spend a year, semester or a few weeks abroad. Being abroad involves a complex process in which several agendas intersect, the university sending the sutdent, the host university, the student's family, the host communities with all their cohorts and the student. From each side, several discourses and concers arise: global citizenship, campus internationalization, cultural awareness, safety and security and the student personal, and often times, not clearaly formulated agenda. Having received US students reguraly in Merida, Mexico for over a period of twenty years, in this session I explore the narratives of travel and experiences that they have created/constructed in order to cope with they daily experiences while in Mexico when trying to conceal the different agendas. Of particular interest is their effort to avoid stereotypes, create a community on the move and engage with other communities avoinding academic tourism and the tourist gaze.