Airspace, Expats, and Afghanistan: The Problem of Cosmopolitan Mobility in International Education

In this chapter, Kristin M. Ferebee reflects on her experience of going to Kabul, where she taught at the American University of Afghanistan during the military intervention there and prior to the Taliban takeover. Packing all her belongings, she aimed to commit to the foreign country. Her experience, however, of expat life, a segregated university compound, and an enforced distance from Afghan everyday life raised the question of how close we can come to host countries. Kristin describes and analyses the walls that are erected: by institutions, through security practices, but sometimes also by an absence of reflexivity.