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Unmasking Higher Education

Unmasking Higher Education

Written by: Girish Daswani
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 Who is the Indian international student in Canada and how have international students been recruited, represented, mis-represented, and even rejected through policies, media, and by Canadian society?

This podcast looks at the multiple ways that Indian international students experience and are made to experience student life in Canada. It is an assemblage of different talks by academics, journalists, students, and activists. Each episode provides a window into different aspects of international student life, including public policy, media & recruitment, gender, marriage and migration, and activism.

This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities.Copyright Girish Daswani Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Shiny News Objects

    Shiny News Objects
    Feb 17 2026
    In this episode, we’re joined by Nam Kiwanuka and Yaseen Ali. They each share how Indian students have been and are represented in the media, and how, to the state, they stand as both bearers of cultural diversity and as racialized scapegoats who require integration.

    Nam Kiwanuka is co-host of The Agenda with Steve Paikin, host of TVO’s latest project, The Thread with Nam Kiwanuka, and host of The Agenda in the Summer. She also co-hosts TVO’s On Docs podcast and contributes columns to TVO.org. You can view the episode of The Thread with Nam Kiwanuka on international students from India on YouTube.

    Yaseen Ali works as a Learning Strategist at the University of Toronto, supporting degree-seeking students in all areas of academic performance. He recently completed a Ph.D. in Language and Literacies Education (OISE), with areas of interest in intercultural humility, plurilingualism in post-secondary education, and the validity of all World Englishes.

    Together, they speak to the struggles of Indian international students, including xenophobia and racism, their mental health challenges, and some of the unfortunate and ugly outcomes of their mistreatment in Canada.

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    This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.
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    16 mins
  • There Is No Indian International Student

    There Is No Indian International Student
    Feb 3 2026
    In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Soma Chatterjee. She speaks about the strong overlap between education migration and labour migration, and the dissonant role of the international student, who is cast as both the problem behind and the solution to Canada’s economic and labour crises.

    Soma Chatterjee is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, York University. Soma is broadly interested in migration and mobility, sovereignty and borders, and their ideological and material implications for contemporary Western nation building. She works at the disciplinary intersections of sociology (studies of nationalism and the diaspora) education (specifically, adult and higher education), social work (social policy and global justice), and geography (migration and mobility studies).

    In her talk, Dr. Chatterjee makes a bold assertion: There is no Indian international student. We’ll let curious listeners dive into this episode to understand why she leaves us with this declaration.

    __________________________________________________________

    This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.
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    19 mins
  • Learning From and With

    Learning From and With
    Jan 20 2026
    In this episode, Girish Daswani and Vedanth Govi provide the context for the episodes that will follow. They discuss recent developments in the treatment of Indian international students in Canada at the hands of the settler-colonial state, which sees these students faced with growing racism, housing and food insecurity, and a rapid erosion of their rights as residents of Canada.

    Girish Daswani is a socio-cultural anthropologist at the University of Toronto whose research interests include Ghana, religion, transnationalism, postcolonialism, the University, and activism. Prof. Daswani is the recipient of the School of Cities “Urban Challenge Grant” that funds collaborative research on Indian international students in Toronto and Singapore.

    Vedanth Govi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Socio-Cultural Anthropology, York University. As the lead RA and organizer on this project, funded by the Urban Challenge Grant, they have seen it through many stages: from doing interviews in the data collection phase to conceptualizing the workshop programming and co-creating this podcast. They are interested in tracing how international South Asians students exist within the larger infrastructures of internationalization and Canadian higher education.

    Join us as we trace the complex entanglement of education policy and migration within the Canadian neoliberal higher education landscape.

    A transcription of the episode can be found here.

    __________________________________________________________

    This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.
    Show More Show Less
    19 mins
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