Unmasking Higher Education

About Unmasking Higher Education

Who is the Indian international student in Canada and how have international students been recruited, represented, mis-represented, and even rejected through policies, media, and by Canadian society? This podcast looks at the multiple ways that Indian international students experience and are made to experience student life in Canada. It is an assemblage of different talks by academics, journalists, students, and activists. Each episode provides a window into different aspects of international student life, including public policy, media & recruitment, gender, marriage and migration, and activism. This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities.

Publisher

Girish Daswani

Category

news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Jan 2026

Latest episode

31 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   31 Mar 2026

   Postscript: One Year On

   In our final episode, Girish and Vedanth come together one year on from the October 2024 workshop, where the talks in this podcast were recorded, to discuss the broader themes that have emerged from this work, and what has changed and stayed the same in the political and economic landscapes of Indian international students in Canada. They discuss the mad timescapes that international students inhabit, the different realities of university and college students, and the settler-colonial machinery of the state, that casts international students both as a surplus labour pool to be exploited, and as scapegoats for Canada's domestic political problems. __________________________________________________________ This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.

2. 

   24 Mar 2026

   “Good Enough To Work, Good Enough To Stay”

   In this episode, we roll up our sleeves and get into the everyday politics of migrant activism with our two speakers, Sarom Rho and Parmbir Gill. They talk about how important it is to recognize that international students are also migrant workers, and they share some of the excellent work done by their respective organizations: the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change and the Naujawan Support Network. Sarom Rho is an organizer with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), a workers’ organization with a membership of migrants in farm work, care work and all low-waged work, which includes international students, refugees, and undocumented people. At MWAC, Sarom coordinates and organizes with Migrant Students United, a group of current and former international students who are coming together across the country to fight for justice and permanent resident status for all. Parmbir Gill is a Toronto-based criminal defence and labour lawyer. He is also the co-founder of Naujawan Support Network, a Brampton-based advocacy group working to stop the exploitation of international students and workers. __________________________________________________________ This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.

3. 

   17 Mar 2026

   Migrating Together, Forever Apart

   In this episode, Harshita Yalamarty presents part of her research on how couples mitigate the socio-economic insecurities that many immigrants face by migrating together. In her talk she helps us to understand the intersection of marriage and migration and the ways in which education and marriage are so closely intertwined in the migration decisions of Indian women. Harshita Yalamarty is a post-doctoral fellow at the department of Gender Studies at Queens's University. She holds a PhD in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies from York University (Tkaronto), and an MPhil and an MA in Political Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Most recently, she was an Assistant Professor in Women and Gender Studies at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax (K’jipuktuk) and has previously taught at University of Delhi. __________________________________________________________ This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.

4. 

   3 Mar 2026

   Under the Care Of

   In this episode, Tania Das Gupta speaks to us about the precarious lives of women Indian international college students. Her ethnographic research allows us to better understand the specific housing struggles of Indian women who attend college, and takes a closer look at the intersections of gender, patriarchy, and Indian households. Tania Das Gupta is professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University. Her publications and research interests include South Asian diaspora, race and racism, anti-racism, immigration and refugee issues, state policies, and women, work and families. Her most recent publication is Twice Migrated Twice Displaced: Indian and Pakistani Transnational Households in Canada (https://www.ubcpress.ca/twice-migrated-twice-displaced) from UBC Press (2021). __________________________________________________________ This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.

5. 

   17 Feb 2026

   Shiny News Objects

   In this episode, we’re joined by Nam Kiwanuka and Yaseen Ali. They each share how Indian students have been and are represented in the media, and how, to the state, they stand as both bearers of cultural diversity and as racialized scapegoats who require integration. Nam Kiwanuka is co-host of The Agenda with Steve Paikin, host of TVO’s latest project, The Thread with Nam Kiwanuka, and host of The Agenda in the Summer. She also co-hosts TVO’s On Docs podcast and contributes columns to TVO.org. You can view the episode of The Thread with Nam Kiwanuka on international students from India on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNIQlVC7dmU). Yaseen Ali works as a Learning Strategist at the University of Toronto, supporting degree-seeking students in all areas of academic performance. He recently completed a Ph.D. in Language and Literacies Education (OISE), with areas of interest in intercultural humility, plurilingualism in post-secondary education, and the validity of all World Englishes. Together, they speak to the struggles of Indian international students, including xenophobia and racism, their mental health challenges, and some of the unfortunate and ugly outcomes of their mistreatment in Canada. __________________________________________________________ This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.

6. 

   3 Feb 2026

   There Is No Indian International Student

   In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Soma Chatterjee. She speaks about the strong overlap between education migration and labour migration, and the dissonant role of the international student, who is cast as both the problem behind and the solution to Canada’s economic and labour crises. Soma Chatterjee is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, York University. Soma is broadly interested in migration and mobility, sovereignty and borders, and their ideological and material implications for contemporary Western nation building. She works at the disciplinary intersections of sociology (studies of nationalism and the diaspora) education (specifically, adult and higher education), social work (social policy and global justice), and geography (migration and mobility studies). In her talk, Dr. Chatterjee makes a bold assertion: There is no Indian international student. We’ll let curious listeners dive into this episode to understand why she leaves us with this declaration. __________________________________________________________ This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.

7. 

   20 Jan 2026

   Learning From and With

   In this episode, Girish Daswani and Vedanth Govi provide the context for the episodes that will follow. They discuss recent developments in the treatment of Indian international students in Canada at the hands of the settler-colonial state, which sees these students faced with growing racism, housing and food insecurity, and a rapid erosion of their rights as residents of Canada. Girish Daswani is a socio-cultural anthropologist at the University of Toronto whose research interests include Ghana, religion, transnationalism, postcolonialism, the University, and activism. Prof. Daswani is the recipient of the School of Cities “Urban Challenge Grant” that funds collaborative research on Indian international students in Toronto and Singapore. Vedanth Govi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Socio-Cultural Anthropology, York University. As the lead RA and organizer on this project, funded by the Urban Challenge Grant, they have seen it through many stages: from doing interviews in the data collection phase to conceptualizing the workshop programming and co-creating this podcast. They are interested in tracing how international South Asians students exist within the larger infrastructures of internationalization and Canadian higher education. Join us as we trace the complex entanglement of education policy and migration within the Canadian neoliberal higher education landscape. A transcription of the episode can be found here (https://docmadeeasy.com/file?sent=7526&h=-tYxciOQAUBKxRp4#CSfvrXMftzS5t5S4TEngTrbLB5s9AECYe9jpPf57xFXY). __________________________________________________________ This podcast is the outcome of a one-day workshop that was organized on Indian international students held at the University of Toronto in October 2024, funded by the School of Cities. It is hosted by Girish Daswani, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and Vedanth Govi, a Ph.D. candidate at York University. Taylor Stark is the editor and producer.