This article outlines the impact of cultural shock and my way of overcoming it as I migrated to the U.S. as an international student. Often-times, even in academia, where we learn to question and look at things from multiple angles, we essentialize subject positions and as a result silence, alienate and erase many people. Through the use of narrative, I am giving voice to my own struggles with silence and erasure inside of academia in the hopes that other scholars will consider their own complicity in this process and perhaps expand their own thinking and curriculum choices for the courses they teach. In addition, I hope to create space to build solidarity across difference both in and outside of the university. © Journal of International Students.

Education Transnational feminism culture African women alienation Self-identity Erasure Culture shock stereotype

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