Contextual Identities

Abstract

As the number of international students studying at American universities continues to grow (Institute of International Education, 2014), campuses are increasingly becoming social spaces where the local, national, and international meet. Even though students’ identities may still be developing in college (Arnett, 2000) and their environment may influence their identity development (Erikson, 1968), little research has focused on the effects of this unique context on students’ identity formation. This study investigated the change in international and American student roommates’ ethnic and national identities over the course of one semester at three Midwestern universities. The qualitative results from semi-structured interviews with four undergraduate students suggest that these students were still grappling with their identities in different ways as they acted as discoverers, ambassadors, and negotiators and support a contextual approach to studying identity development in college students.