This article explores the affective practice of judgment within UK higher education through the lens of whiteness supremacy, examining the conditions under which shame arises and becomes embodied as a sense of deficiency. Negative emotions experienced by international students are often framed as their personal struggles to ‘adapt’ to the local environment and their ‘transition’ is frequently grounded in a discourse of ‘deficiency’. However, this depiction highlights a form of misrecognition, which emphasizes the need for analysis to uncover the subtle ways these insidious misrecognitions manifest through the politics of emotion and shame. By linking the racialized and gendered dimensions of shame with systems of valuation, the study demonstrates how international students in UK higher education navigate its pervasive presence across academic contexts. Drawing on a longitudinal study of Chinese international postgraduate students at several UK universities over one year, the article delves into the silent behavior and academic performance of these students as key examples. It reveals how judgment operates as an affective practice that enables the ‘seepage’ of shame, disproportionately affecting certain actors. The findings illustrate how shame profoundly shapes students' lived experiences, perpetuating narratives of deficiency and reinforcing systemic inequalities in higher education. By taking the affective practice approach, this article also reveals international students’ active negotiation and the capacity for agency amidst structural constraints.

Shame, International Students, Affective Practice, Value, Judgement