Skip to content

Your Identity Overseas

Your Identity Overseas

disabilities
According to Mobility International USA there are three ways you can help make a smooth transition into your international exchange experience:
  1. disclosing your disability
  2. being your own advocate
  3. determining disability accommodations for access.
Mobility International USA's article, "Where Should I Go Abroad? Well, it Depends" offers solid advice when choosing a study abroad program. For students with chronic health conditions, learning or mobility disabilities or mental health concerns, we encourage students to seek advisement from Hofstra's Student Access Services office and each trip's program director. 

sexual and gender identity
GoAbroad.com offers a free and helpful handbook for LGBTQ students looking to study abroad, “Meaningful Travel Tips and Tales – LGBTQ Traveler’s Perspectives.” This handbook includes a variety of tips and stories, an acceptance global map, explanations of queer identities by region, lists of safe locales, and advice on how to come out to a host family. GoAbroad states:
LGBTQ travelers who decide to go abroad – whether that be to study, teach, intern, or volunteer – are making the decision to take on an even bigger challenge than their heterosexual and cis-gendered peers. Every country around the world has varying laws, customs, and beliefs about the LGBTQ community, and therefore will react and treat LGBTQ travelers in a unique way. After potentially overcoming the challenges of coming out in their home countries, LGBTQ students who head abroad can be overwhelmed when faced with coming out all over again, except this time in a completely foreign and sometimes unfriendly environment for people who identify as LGBTQ that may or may not lack an understanding or acceptance of LGBTQ students...More and more, studying abroad is becoming somewhat of a standard endeavor of college students; this guide was created to help ensure that LGBTQ students have all the resources they need to participate in study abroad safely, happily, and successfully. 
 
race & ethnicity
According to Temple University:
No two students studying abroad ever have quite the same experience, even in the same program and country. This same variety is true for students of color and those from U.S. minority ethnic or racial backgrounds. Reports from past participants vary from those who felt exhilarated by being free of the context of race relations in the U.S., to those who experienced different degrees of 'innocent' curiosity about their ethnicity, to those who felt they met both familiar and new types of ostracism and prejudice and had to learn new coping strategies. Many students reported that their difference as an American was emphasized over and above their ethnic or racial differences while studying abroad. Very few minority students conclude that racial or ethnic problems that can be encountered in other countries represent sufficient reasons for not going. On the other hand, it is wise to know what you are getting into and prepare yourself. Remember that standards of ‘political correctness’ can vary widely outside of the United States.

Temple University recommends some questions to ask:
  1. How will I be perceived in the host country? Are there any preconceived notions of people of my ethnic/racial group in the host country?
  2. Is there a history of ethnic/racial tension in the host country?
  3. How will I react if someone says or does something offensive?
  4. How will I react if I am mistaken for being a member of an ethnic group other than the one with which I identify?
  5. If someone says something insensitive, try to analyze the situation. Are they doing so out of ignorance and misunderstanding, or out of prejudice and bigotry?​​​​​​​
Hofstra University is here to support you before, during and after you travel. If you have questions, need advice, or just need someone to talk to please contact: