Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Renegotiating identities in international academic careers

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 1796–1798 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Many academics move countries in pursuit of career opportunities. With every move, personal identities are renegotiated as people shift between belonging to majority and minority groups in different contexts. Institutes should consider people’s dynamic and intersectional identities in their diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Holding simultaneous identities.

References

  1. Crenshaw, K. Stanford Law Rev. 43, 1241 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ukpokodu, O. N. in The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge (eds Abidogun, J. M. & Falola, T.) 761–786 (Springer, 2020).

  3. Crumley-Effinger, M. & Torres-Olave, B. J. Int. Stud. 11, 86–107 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gerhards, J., Hans, S. & Drewski, D. High. Educ. 76, 669–685 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Duany, J. The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States (Univ. North Carolina Press, 2003).

  6. Bilimoria, D. & Singer, L. T. Equal. Divers. Incl. 38, 362–381 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Strmic-Pawl, H. V., Jackson, B. A. & Garner, S. Sociol. Race Ethn. (Thousand Oaks) 4, 1–13 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gewin, V. Nature 583, 479–481 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Sorcinelli, M. D. & Yun, J. Change Mag. High. Learn. 39, 58–61 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Halsey, S. J., Strickland, L. R., Scott-Richardson, M., Perrin-Stowe, T. & Massenburg, L. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 4, 1291–1293 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bhatia, S. & Ram, A. Hum. Development 44, 1–18 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

A.E. was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. M.N.U. was supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB-2016678). We are indebted to many students, professors, family members and friends for insightful conversations. In particular, we thank A. B. Hurtado, M. W. Pennell, S. Winton, and N. Balyasnikova for their feedback.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Alejandra Echeverri, Laura Melissa Guzman, Sylvia Heredia, Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela & Maria Natalia Umaña.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alejandra Echeverri

  2. Centre for Conservation Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alejandra Echeverri

  3. The Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alejandra Echeverri

  4. Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alejandra Echeverri

  5. Marine and Environmental Biology Section, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Laura Melissa Guzman

  6. Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Sylvia Heredia

  7. Department of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela

  8. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Maria Natalia Umaña

Authors
  1. Alejandra Echeverri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Laura Melissa Guzman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sylvia Heredia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Maria Natalia Umaña
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.E., L.M.G., S.H., N.O.P. and M.N.U contributed to the writing of the manuscript. S.H. did the figure.

Positionality statement We are five Colombian-born ecologists, descendants of Spanish settlers and mixed-blooded mestizos. We identify as cisgender women, and two of us are mothers. All of us have moved from Colombia to European (Norway, England, Switzerland), Asian (China, Indonesia) and North American (USA and Canada) countries to advance our careers. Our new roles have forced us to renegotiate our identities as minority Latinas in STEM fields. In Colombia we identify as being part of the majority group when it comes to our racial identity, but simultaneously we belong to minority groups when it comes to our profession. All five of us work in US and Canadian universities in biology, zoology and environmental studies departments.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alejandra Echeverri.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Echeverri, A., Guzman, L.M., Heredia, S. et al. Renegotiating identities in international academic careers. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 1796–1798 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01895-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01895-9

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing