The professionalization of the field of Study Abroad has led to an increase in research on the student experience as well as macro-level analyses of institutional ‘best practices’ for program development and implementation. Yet what has been largely ignored is the international education epistemology embedded in the curation of what I refer to as institutional study abroad portfolios (ISAPs) - the compilation of study abroad programs focusing on specific disciplines or learning activities in particular parts of the world. In this paper, I argue that by using ISAPs as a unit of analysis we can uncover political complexity that is often obfuscated both by institution-level policy analysis as well as program-level evaluation. I present an ISAP analyses of three post-secondary institutions in the U.S. that illustrates how ‘common sense’ geographical and disciplinary pairings come to produce ‘hidden curriculum’ which results in problematic and potentially unintended cartographies of knowledge legitimization.

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This chapter draws attention to the disconnect between the goal of global learning through mutual cross-cultural exchange with local hosts and the absence of efforts to assess the impact of study abroad students on host communities. When host community impact is considered, it is typically in the context of service-learning in the Global South and ignores more popular and densely saturated sites in Europe. In contribution to filling this gap, this chapter presents data from a study conducted in Florence, Italy that sought to better understand the experience of intentional hosts and gauge what they see as the economic, cultural, educational, and environmental impacts of hosting large numbers of US students. In-depth interviews with 31 local faculty, administrators, and host families provide important insights for how international educators can design programming that mitigates negative impacts on host communities while creating opportunities for equitable, ethical, cross-cultural engagement.

This chapter draws attention to the disconnect between the goal of global learning through mutual cross-cultural exchange with local hosts and the absence of efforts to assess the impact of study abroad students on host communities. When host community impact is considered, it is typically in the context of service-learning in the Global South and ignores more popular and densely saturated sites in Europe. In contribution to filling this gap, this chapter presents data from a study conducted in Florence, Italy that sought to better understand the experience of intentional hosts and gauge what they see as the economic, cultural, educational, and environmental impacts of hosting large numbers of US students. In-depth interviews with 31 local faculty, administrators, and host families provide important insights for how international educators can design programming that mitigates negative impacts on host communities while creating opportunities for equitable, ethical, cross-cultural engagement.