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In Transit: An Oral History Project about Crossing Borders
SC1581
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Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: In Transit: An Oral History Project about Crossing Borders
Identifier/Call Number: SC1581
Physical Description:
4 gigabyte(s)
Date (inclusive): 2020-2021
Due to the personal nature of the interviews, all content has been embargoed until at least September 2026, with some content
embargoed for longer or indefinitely. All materials are restricted to users with a Stanford University ID.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Interviews were conducted by Stanford graduate student Dharshani Lakmali Jayasinghe with support from the Stanford Historical
Society Oral History Program.
On March 20, 2020, the US Department of State announced that "[i]n response to significant worldwide challenges related to
the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of State is temporarily suspending routine visa services at all US Embassies and Consulates."
Exacerbating this situation, on September 25, 2020, the US Homeland Security Department proposed a new rule that would restrict
student visas to two years for citizens from fifty-nine countries. Such visa restrictions can negatively impact student diversity,
academic freedom, plurality of ideas, and cultural and linguistic heterogeneity at academic institutions such as Stanford
University.
Taking this context into consideration, and given that 25.64% of the Stanford student population in 2019 consisted of international
students (according to the 2019 Annual Report released by the Bechtel International Student Center), the primary purpose of
this project is to understand visa-related difficulties and travel restrictions international students at Stanford are facing
since the pandemic started. My larger research project explores the ways in which immigrants and international students experience
rights violations and the loss of dignity in the process of securing the right to immigrate and settle down in the US. Given
that the visa system was introduced to limit the mobility of European Jews during World War II, and the inherently racist,
discriminatory, and neocolonial bases of these laws, my work is an attempt to understand how such laws continue to impinge
on the rights and dignities of applicants.
The oral history project "In Transit" was run in collaboration with the Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program and
the Poetic Media Lab, which is a digital humanities research and design group based at the Center for Spatial and Textual
Analysis (CESTA) at Stanford University. It aims to create a digital archive of oral histories that capture the lived realities
of those who experience rights violations and indignities as a consequence of pandemic-triggered visa restrictions. It complements
my larger dissertation research by capturing via oral narratives the lived realities and struggles that "aliens" have been
going through since the pandemic began (and continue to undergo). Oral history interviews were conducted with immigrants,
international students, as well as administrative staff who work on visa-related issues. This project has so far collected,
and is in the process of transcribing, twenty-five interviews with international students, both graduate and undergraduate,
at Stanford University from twenty-three countries on the topic of immigration and visas. A long-form oral history interview
has also been conducted with John Pearson, Director Emeritus of the Bechtel International Center at Stanford University.
[identification of item], (SC1581). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif.
[identification of item], In Transit: An Oral History Project about Crossing Borders (SC1581). Department of Special Collections
& University Archives, Stanford Libaries, Stanford, Calif.
The collection contains oral history interviews primarily with international students at Stanford University during the COVID-19
pandemic. Interviews cover visa laws and travel, both during and before the pandemic.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish
Subjects and Indexing Terms
International education.
International travel.
Student passports
Visas -- United States