International Scholarships and Southern Agency: An Ethnography of Alumni, Scholars, and Applicants

ABSTRACT

International scholarships are an established mode of aid distribution for many donor countries and a life-changing educational opportunity for recipients from the global South. This article draws upon ethnographic field research centred on Dili, Timor-Leste, focussing on case studies of a scholarship applicant, a scholar, and an alumnus. It employs the concept of Southern agency, investigating individual practices shaped by influences that both constrain and enable action, namely local infrastructure, family and kinship groups, literacies, and the colonial legacy. Scholarship places are limited and extremely competitive, while assigning a moral imperative for alumni to learn and return to contribute to local development, often resulting in the re-production of socially normed roles echoing the colonial era. The global upheaval in higher education resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the need for alternative interventions in the global South, including greater investment in local higher education institutions, and online learning. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Studies in International Education is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)