TY - JOUR AU - Riggan, Jennifer AU - Gwak, S. Sonya AU - Lesnick, Joy AU - Jackson, Kara AU - Olitsky, Stacey PY - 2011/08/15 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Meta-travel: A critical inquiry into a China Study Tour JF - Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad JA - Frontiers VL - 21 IS - 1 SE - Research Articles DO - 10.36366/frontiers.v21i1.311 UR - https://frontiersjournal.org/index.php/Frontiers/article/view/311 SP - 236-253 AB - <p>This paper questions whether participants on short-term study tours&nbsp;typically allow themselves and their understandings about the world to be&nbsp;transformed by their experiences or if these brief trips only serve to reify and&nbsp;legitimize preconceived notions and stereotypes about the world. Based on&nbsp;an analysis of U.S. graduate students’ experiences on a trip to China, we&nbsp;argue that short-term study tours have the potential to provide a valuable&nbsp;opportunity for participants to deepen their understanding of themselves and&nbsp;their role in the world. However, they can only do so if a critical reflection&nbsp;component is incorporated in the study tour. Specifically, short-term study&nbsp;travel can help participants understand the situated and shifting nature of their&nbsp;identities as students and travelers. It can also deepen their awareness of how&nbsp;they are positioned globally as students of a U.S. based institution, and explore&nbsp;how positionality, identity, and stereotypes shape their worldview during study&nbsp;tours. By engaging in an intentional, critical reflection process, we argue that&nbsp;participants can experience deeper emotional and intellectual transformation&nbsp;during short-term study tours. We use the case of a study tour to China to&nbsp;propose a framework for reflection during short-term study travel that we call&nbsp;“meta-travel.”</p> ER -