Navigating Exceptionality

Abstract

The dominant humanitarian framework through which higher education and associated opportunities for refugees are provided often projects the image of a ‘deserving’ refugee subject within a racialized hierarchy. Drawing on students’ stories and narratives from ethnographic work, this article demonstrates how they negotiate the distinctions and navigate competing societal expectations and priorities within their intersectional contexts in Lebanon and Jordan. While students in the region are already navigating in a growing neo-liberal logic of the market and meritocracy, discourses of refugee self-reliance and entrepreneurship continue to shape the model refugee figure as able, white, and masculine. This meets with participants’ intersectional concerns regarding family responsibilities, marriage expectations, and the urgency to establish themselves. Participants experience frantic time and symbolic violence when unable practically to achieve the success expected of them.

Citation: Wen-Yu Wu, ‘Navigating Exceptionality: Refugee Students’ Pursuit of Higher Education in Intersectional Contexts in Jordan and Lebanon,’ (Date of Publication), in Dina Kiwan (ed.), Academia and Education in Meena Dhanda (ed.), Oxford Intersections: Racism by Context (Oxford, online edn., Oxford Academic, 20 Mar. 2025 -), DOI, accessed date.