Higher Education as Battleground: Russian Fulbright Students' War-related Narratives as Transitions to Civic Development

Abstract

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has significantly impacted Russian international students, particularly those participating in the Fulbright Program in the United States. We explore their narratives to understand how they perceive and navigate their war-related experiences. Using dynamic narrative inquiry, the research analyzes first-person accounts, letters, and fictional third-person stories by students across three cohorts (2021, 2022, and 2023)—Fulbright cohorts at different points in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The dynamic narrative inquiry research design invited first-person accounts, letters, and fictional third-person stories engaging the participants in different author-purpose-audience stances, which is especially relevant in writing about contentious situations. Values analysis of the 1,165 sentences across the 39 narratives, letters, and stories reveals five main value orientations: interpersonal relationships, social and political engagement, coping mechanisms, personal development and growth, and recognizing and validating the challenges. Participants used each genre to express different experiences and knowledge: first-person narratives emphasized emotional processing and civic reflection, letters balanced personal vulnerability with caution toward real or imagined audiences, and third-person fiction enabled safer engagement with politically sensitive issues. Cross-cohort comparisons revealed that pre-war students more openly expressed civic and political concerns, while during-war participants emphasized personal well-being and emotional regulation, reflecting heightened fear and moral fatigue after the invasion. These patterns illustrate how narrative genres functioned as mediational tools through which students balanced safety and civic ambiguity. The findings contribute to research on youth civic development in authoritarian contexts by showing how storytelling becomes a form of cautious civic engagement amid geopolitical rupture.