The purpose of this dissertation was to understand women of color international graduate students’ conceptualizations, perceptions, and experiences of violence and safety, in addition to the influences of those perceptions and experiences on their lives, while studying in the United States. I perceived women of color international graduate students to be at a particular juncture of political context and oppressions that could influence their experiences. I conducted a qualitative interview study of 11 women of color international graduate students enrolled in doctoral programs at two universities in the southern United States. I was informed by a framework made up of intersectionality and transnational feminism. I learned women of color international graduate students’ conceptualizations of violence and safety complicated those found in the literature by understanding violence and safety in terms of physical, non-physical, and security aspects. Participants also had complex experiences and perceptions, including experiences of sexual harassment, threats of physical violence, discrimination, and silencing. Participants shared financial and visa status insecurity as contributing to lack of safety. I found policies and events factored into participants’ assessments of safety to varying degrees, with gun violence and campus carry factoring in heavily while sexual harassment from faculty members was less of a concern. Coronavirus emerged as contributing to lack of safety. Influences on participants’ lives included the creation of strategies to maintain safety and prevent violence. In addition, I found participants spent a lot of time and energy thinking about their safety. Participants had perspectives about effects on their own lives including loss of freedom and increased empowerment. I asked participants about their perspectives of university responsibility. While some participants did not perceive the university had additional responsibility than what was already done, others perceived their universities could improve on transparency and training. Their recommendations informed my recommendations in the final chapter. I offered implications for practice and policy, including universities making changes within and advocating for changes at a state and national level. I also discuss implications for theory, including the need for a racialized, gendered, internationalized, and graduate student worker lens, and one that incorporates women of color international graduate students’ previous and current locations. Suggestions for future research include research with other populations and taking into account changing contexts. I offer implications for methods including those that may help researchers studying precarious populations. My hope is this research will positively influence women of color international graduate students’ experiences in the United States.
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