Foreign But Not Alien: Life narratives of Anglophone international students in Hungary

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungarian higher education has seen an upsurge in the number of international students it has served in recent years. According to Statista (2025), they numbered 37 500 in the 2023–24 academic year, a remarkable increase from only 14 300 in 2009–10. This amounts to a percentage growth of over 162 percent! This shift in our student population makes it incumbent upon university instructors, administrators and other staff to better understand the various needs, concerns, strengths and weaknesses of these newcomers. Proceeding from work by Bruner (1987) and Fougère (2008) on the construction of identity through self-narrative, the paper will present findings from a case study involving the life narratives of five Anglophone international students at the University of Szeged. Themes explored will include: sensemaking (the process of an ever changing understanding of an ever changing identity); a sense of belonging with a focus on insideness and outsideness, competence and role fulfillment, and center and periphery dynamics; questioning and learning about the self; and development and change, including heterotopias and the ‘third space’, and dwelling in-between. In exploring the life narratives of these particular participants, the paper may have a range of implications for universities and other institutions in Hungary (and elsewhere) toward more effective preparation for the ever growing influx of international students (and staff) from throughout the world.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Thomas A. Williams, PhD, is a senior assistant professor at the Department of English Studies, University of Szeged, where he uses narrative inquiry to research identity construction among language learners and teaches classes on linguistic pragmatics and identity as well as English language teacher education courses. In addition, he is currently involved in an international project on agency and long Covid, in which he collects the experiences of doctors and patients through narrative. A certified translator, he also teaches – and does – specialized translation in a range of genres and subject areas.