Migration, Citznshp & Humn Rts

Catalog description

The course will examine the lives and experiences of migrant individuals and communities, especially in relation to discourses of belonging and citizenship, from a social justice perspective. A specific feature is the emphasis on the interconnectedness of global, regional, national, and local realities, as they affect the lives of people in everyday domains. While policies at the local, national, and transnational levels as well as issues around their effective, and just, implementation, are necessarily salient topics for the course, we are especially concerned with conceptualizing immigrants as social actors, who attempt to actualize their desires and intentions within constraints created by multi-layered power structures. From such a perspective, immigrants faced with injustices are not cast as passive victims, but as active agents of change, negotiating, and at times, challenging obstacles to dignified survival. Through readings, films, discussions, lectures (including guest lectures), and field research. Open only to junior and senior Human Rights Minors. Offered: fall only.