This reflexive narrative study explores college students’ honor thesis projects undertaken in a top English Education (EE) program at a prestigious foreign language university in Shanghai, China. The study positions a foreign teacher-researcher from an English-speaking country as the primary narrator to navigate two graduates awarded honor thesis prizes in 2022 and 2023. They have subsequently pursued advanced research training abroad in the United States and the United Kingdom. By underpinning Bourdieu’s concepts of language and symbolic power within the ideas of research literacy, this study developed scholarly conversations about the tensions between the participants’ linguistic capital and research literacy development. The study further expands scholarly discussions about the interplay of institutional habitus, linguistic capital, and cosmopolitan career-guided imagery. This study provides implications for teacher-researchers and policy decision-makers to understand college students’ broader horizons and post-graduation plans in language and international education. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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