Jenna Mittelmeier
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jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Jenna Mittelmeier
@jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
1K followers 330 following 170 posts
Senior Lecturer in International Education at the University of Manchester. Research focuses on international students and international higher education. “Research with International Students” book out now! www.researchintlstudents.com
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jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Recently got a physical copy of Derrida’s Writing and Difference, but a printing error from the publisher put the children’s book “A Tricky Trespasser: A Kitty Corner Adventure” in the front of the book before Derrida’s writing starts.

Feels…apt?
Front cover of Derrida: Writing and Difference First page of the Derrida book, with the misprint from Poppy Seed Publishers: “A Tricky Trespasser: A Kitty Corner Adventure” by Natalie Knox Page 13: an illustration of a cat licking his further with large size text “As Lucy approached the forest, the cats were already gathering around the feeding station. Each one was at a safe distance, their eyes and ears alert for both danger and food. Will I see the tricky trespasser?”
June 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Ah I see we are exploiting the hostile environment for capitalist profit now 👍👍👍👍
Social media advertisement for Marshmallow insurance company with a truck in front of UK parliament with big hot pink sign reading “immigrants wanted. Our car insurance is made for UK newcomers.” Text in post reads “immigrants wanted. Yes, we said it. Because you keep the UK moving. So at Marshmallow, we keep going moving, with car insurance made for newcomers”.
April 17, 2025 at 8:12 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
On my way back home from Plymouth after an invitation from BALEAP to give a keynote at their biennial conference (thank you 🙏)

“Seeking kindness in our work with international students” - recorded and hope to share soon!
Screenshot of a slideshow: Photo of university building and text “seeking kindness in our work with international students. Dr Jenna Mittelmeier, BALEAP 2025” Coastal pier with blue skies and green hills in the background, sailboats and calm blue water in the foreground
April 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Arrived in Chennai! A groggy jetlagged mind, but the sun is here to greet me 🌞
Sunny day with blue skies and palm trees
March 29, 2025 at 12:36 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Pleased that we are co-sponsoring this event, focusing on 'Navigating intersectionality, policy, and activism: Queer international students in the Global North'
11 April, 6:00 to 7:30 PM GMT

More details and registration: researchintlstudents.com/events/#11Ap...

Wonderful speakers, please join!
This panel explores the nuanced challenges and resiliencies of queer international students within higher education and beyond. Four scholars will present recent research examining the negotiation of intersecting identities in an increasingly hostile and politicized environment for both queer people and international students. Speakers: Lisa Brunner, Anne Campbell, Mohit Dudeja, Fatemeh Gharibi, and Tori Yang
March 5, 2025 at 11:40 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
We're still seeking participants for a short survey about whether / what kind of training you've received for working with international students.

Anyone who works in higher education in any student-facing role (from any context) can participate:
www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...
Do you work with students in higher education? We are seeking responses to a short survey about whether you've received training for working with international students. Estimated time: 10 minutes
January 16, 2025 at 4:25 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
This one will always feel personal, written through sadness in the public library after my best dog died because I couldn’t bring myself to write home alone without him ❤️
Acknowledgements This essay is the first piece I have written after losing my dog Teddy, who was my treasured friend for 16 years. He was my dedicated research partner and co-author for my entire academic career until now and he is sorely missed.
January 16, 2025 at 8:15 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
A new paper from me:
International students and everyday multiculturalism: rethinking ‘connection’ through mundane sites of encounter

Available open access at: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Co-authored with Daian Haung, Limanzi Xu, Mumine Ozturk, and Karen Broadhurst Healey (joint 2nd authors)
Dominant narratives of international students in the existing literature paint them as ‘missing’ or living ‘in parallel’ to their local communities, predominantly through evaluating the composition of their friendship networks. In this study, we query whether the use of a new conceptual framework can provide alternative explanations for these defcit framing. Using the lens of ‘everyday multiculturalism’, we explore instead how (international) students encounter, enact, and engage with multiculturalism in their local communities in more micro ways through banal acts of daily living. This has been developed through interviews with 41 international and home students across four cities in Germany, using a photo elicitation method and centring narrative storytelling. This study fnds that microsites of encounter, such as rubbish bins and bus rides, are symbolised by students as meaningful spaces of multicultural encounter and learning. We further refect on how everyday multiculturalism holds a dual function as a site of experienced xenophobia and racism, as well as spaces where stereotypes are confirmed. Together this highlights the value of alternative conceptual frameworks for critiquing deficit framings of international students’ connections to multicultural societies by highlighting how they *are* multicultural society.
January 15, 2025 at 2:36 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Mission accomplished 🎄
Screenshot of an empty email inbox with a "all done for the day! enjoy your empty inbox" graphic.
December 20, 2024 at 4:14 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Do you work w/ students in higher education?
Call for participants for a short survey! (10 minutes): www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...

The survey focuses on whether and what kind of training you've received for working with international students or in intercultural contexts.
Do you work with students in higher education? We are seeking responses to a short survey about whether you've received training for working with international students. Estimated time: 10 minutes
December 9, 2024 at 10:55 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
When I went to Delhi, my host kindly invited me to her home for dinner where I met her elderly mother. We didn’t share a common language but managed to still share stories all night, then her mother asked to add me on WhatsApp. For months now, I start every morning with a good morning gif from her.
Screen shot of WhatsApp with two gifs being sent to each other. One a basket of red flowers that says good morning. Another a coffee cup set against a bouquet of flowers that also says good morning.
December 4, 2024 at 7:43 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Have arrived in Nottingham! I’m looking forward to coffee chats at the SRHE conference.
Train station platform with Nottingham sign in the distance
December 4, 2024 at 7:32 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
📣 Announcing: RIS Online Conference 2025!

"Finding Purpose in Research with International Students"
10 - 13 March 2025 (online only)

Abstracts due 24 January 2025
Details about the theme and call for abstracts are available at: researchintlstudents.com/conference20...
RIS Online Conference 2025. 10 - 13 March 2025. Finding Purpose in Research with International Students. Abstracts due 24 January 2025.
November 28, 2024 at 9:55 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Just back after three weeks in Hong Kong, which was a really memorable learning experience.

I think I’m mostly taking away a palpable sense of pressure faced by scholars there - to publish lots, in the best journals - which is shaping so much of our knowledge construction globally.
A small pond full of goldfish with a temple on the edge, surrounded by skyscrapers
November 24, 2024 at 8:40 AM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Went to Norwich Cathedral during a visit to UEA today and the sunlight reminded me of my favorite poem.

(Beauty by B.H. Fairchild, which perfectly captures where I’m from www.poemoftheweek.com/bhfairchild)
Cathedral with stained glass windows and multicolored reflections shining on intricate stonework patterns The light from the venetian blinds, the autumn, silver Kansas light laving the table that Sunday, is what I recall now because it was beautiful, though I of course would not have said so then, beautiful, as so many moments forgotten but later remembered come back to us in slants and pools and uprisings of light, beautiful in itself, but more beautiful mingled with memory
November 9, 2023 at 6:35 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Went through some old photographs when I was back home and I love the juxtaposition of Halloween and Catholicism in this one 😂
October 31, 2023 at 8:00 PM
jlmittelmeier.bsky.social
Today’s reading is from this book published in 1989, read because I’m really drawn to intersections of international and local lately

But I LOVE finder older education books that use the same language of NEW TECHNOLOGIES and how they are CHANGING EVERYTHING. A reminder that no time is that special.
October 13, 2023 at 4:05 PM