Reconstructing Writer, Student, Teacher, and Gender Identities - Chinese Students in America

The binary thinking and essentialism prevalent in U.S. dominant discourses on rhetoric, learning, teaching, and gender construct and maintain various stereotypes that hinder millions of Chinese international students in America from finding, transforming, or asserting their identities in the dominant discourses of American academia and culture. Contributing to the discussion of issues essential to the field of rhetoric and composition, pedagogy, and gender studies,as well to a better understanding of international students from various perspectives, this project discusses how the western paradigms of rhetoric, pedagogy, and gender have dismissed Chinese international students' teacher, writer, student, and gender identities as abnormalities to be deconstructed.This project uses identity theories of Michel Foucault to investigate how individual identities both submit to and resist the dominant discourses; it also draws upon Homi Bhabha's postcolonial theory to explore the possibility of creating a space where individual identities blur the binaries while negotiating with dominant discourse from both cultures.

Dr. Peiling Zhao is currently an assistant professor of English at Millikin University, Decatur, IL, U.S.A. She is currently teaching writing courses such as applying writing theories, feminist rhetoric, and first year writing. She earned her doctoral degree in Rhetoric and Composition from University of South Florida in 2005.