Using an online survey of American undergraduate students, this paper serves as a case study of a liberal arts college located in the Southern United States (US) to explore the effects of studying abroad on students’ attitudes and behavior related to diversity upon their return to campus. We find that white students and students of color report significantly different study abroad experiences and distinct patterns related to their likelihood to engage with racial, but not other forms of, diversity when they return to their home university. Specifically, students of color are more likely than white students to report that their study abroad experiences have increased the likelihood that they interact more frequently with individuals from different racial backgrounds in a number of campus contexts. Utilizing existing literature and our qualitative data, we address possible reasons for these racialized patterns. 1. Introduction At the 2012 Association of International Education Administrators annual conference, experts in the field of education abroad discussed the challenges associated with increasing diversity in study abroad participation among students who attend colleges and universities in the United States [1]. Whereas study abroad participation has grown significantly among American undergraduate students in general over recent decades, there are still specific groups that are notably underrepresented, including students of color (note: we use the terms students of color and racial and ethnic minorities interchangeably to denote African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American students) [1, 2]. In 2011, the US undergraduate population consisted of 32% students of color at private universities and 37% at public institutions [3]. However, they represented only 22% of students who studied abroad outside the United States [4]. For many educators, this discrepancy is troubling and should serve as a motivating force for American universities to find constructive ways to diversify study abroad participation [1, 5]. Understanding how race is related to students’ study abroad experiences and their views upon their return to their home institution would help to facilitate this goal. Recent research calls into question any prior speculation that white students and students of color in the US intend to or ultimately participate in study abroad because of the same human, financial, institutional, and cultural capital factors [2, 5, 6]. It may similarly be the case that there are racialized patterns in the experiences and outcomes of education
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