Negotiating Islamic and Cultural Identities in English-Mediated Academic Interaction: A Digital Ethnography of Power, Belonging, and Difference

Abstract

Research in intercultural communication is still limited in examining how Islamic identity is negotiated in English-mediated academic interactions, particularly in digital academic spaces fraught with power relations. This study aims to explore how Islamic and cultural identities are negotiated through discursive practices, strategic visibility, and the dynamics of belonging and difference. Using a Digital Ethnography approach, this study involved 12 English Language Education postgraduate students. Data were collected through online class interactions, discussion forums, chat logs, and in-depth interviews, and analyzed iteratively through coding, thematic analysis, and discourse-oriented interpretation. The results show that identity is produced through discursive performance, negotiated through strategic visibility and silence, and structured by power relations that influence the legitimacy of expression. Furthermore, identity is also experienced through the dynamics of belonging and difference in digital academic spaces. This study concludes that identity negotiation is a multi-layered process mediated by language, constrained by academic norms, and experienced relationally. This study contributes to the development of identity negotiation in intercultural communication and offers implications for more reflective and inclusive digital academic practices.