Southern Perspectives

Being a Southeast Asian Doctoral Student in Foreign Lands

Series: 

Volume Editor:
Elizabeth Allotta
This volume is a collection of the stories of eight international students from Southeast Asia who journeyed to undertake doctoral studies in an Australian university. Each author shares the academic and cultural challenges of living and studying in a foreign country and adjusting to different cultural and social contexts, including the drivers, motivators, personal and familial expectations of undertaking doctoral studies in a foreign land, their changing sense of self and identity on their journey, and the impact of being separated from family, friends, and familiar supports. Insights are gained into the social, cultural and familial experiences that challenge doctoral students and their family members.

Contributors are: M. Maksud Ali, Elizabeth Allotta, Brent Bradford, Danwei Gao, Huan Yik Lee, Yifie Liang, Muhammad Ali Musofer, Garth Stahl, Aaron Teo and Preeti Vayada.
Copyright Year:
2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74692-3
Publication:
29 Sep 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74690-9
Publication:
09 Oct 2025
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Elizabeth Allotta, Ph.D. (2023), is an educator passionate about the experiences of teachers and doctoral students working and studying in Australian contexts. She has edited another volume in this series, Different Perspectives, Different Cultures, Different Places: The Experiences of International and Domestic Students Studying in an Australian University (Brill, 2023).
Series Editor’s Foreword: The Doctoral Journey in Education
 Brent Bradford
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Notable Quotes
Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Insights into the Doctoral Journey from Different Southeast Asian Perspectives
 Elizabeth Allotta

1 Becoming a PhD Scholar: A Collaborative and Productive Doctoral Journey
 Yifiei Liang

2 Researching Masculinities as a Path to Undo Gender: An Autoethnography of a Cisgender Male Chinese Doctoral Student in Australia
 Yang Zhao

3 Becoming a Decolonial Researcher: Storying My Doctoral Journey
 Preeti Vayada

4 Human Capital as the Object of Doctoral Study and the Object of Desire: An Evocative Autoethnography
 M. Maksud Ali

5 From Karakorum Heights to Australian Shores: A Rhizomatic Doctoral Odyssey
 Muhammad Ali Musofer

6 ‘Doctoral Is for Life’: Narratives of a Global South Doctoral Scholar
 Huan Yik Lee

7 From China to Australia: A Three-Moment Field Analysis of the Transnational Doctoral Experience
 Danwei Gao

8 The Doctoral Journey: An ‘Asian’ Australian Ex-Schoolteacher’s Critical Autoethnographic Exploration of Migration, Anti-Asian Racism and Education
 Aaron Teo

PART 1: Final Thoughts



Contributor Thoughts upon Completion
Afterword
 Garth Stahl
Glossary
Index
Institutions offering social science (in particular education, gender, and cultural studies) postgraduate and doctoral courses, enrolled and prospective doctoral students and supervisors, university graduate schools supporting and assisting international students.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xx, 173 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004746923

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