Chapter 4: Power, Privilege, and Study Abroad as “Spectacle”

This chapter critically examines the short-term cohort model of study abroad within the present context of higher education’s commodification of international experiences as a form of curriculum enrichment. Employing Guy Debord’s concept of “spectacle” and Augusto Boal’s theorization on the social dimension of Western drama, the author analyzes how privilege and power factor in the semiotic structure of study abroad programs and how the organization of study abroad can jeopardize the benefits international experiences can provide to students, particularly in instances when the socioeconomic asymmetry between participants’ nations is obvious.