Topics in Modern European History: Refugees and Modern Europe

Catalog description

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Current topic description: This course examines the history of forced displacement in modern Europe from the First World War to the present. The crises that forced millions to flee were many: nation-building and ethnic cleansing, imperial expansion and decolonization, persecution and world wars, epidemics and environmental catastrophe. Some drove people toward Europe; others away from it. As we explore the population movements that attended these upheavals, we trace the creation of the modern refugee as a distinct legal and political category. We examine the evolution of humanitarian aid efforts, European border controls, and the current international refugee regime. We follow displaced persons through flight and transit, resettlement and integration, and, occasionally, return. Throughout, we attend to how gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, race, religion, age, family status, citizenship, and ability have structured refugees' experiences, public perceptions, and state policies. We will engage with a wide variety of visual, textual, oral, and digital sources, from virtual reality experiences and the recent scholarship of Tara Zahra and Philipp Ther to the fictional and non-fictional writings of Hannah Arendt, Azouz Begag, Buchi Emecheta, Khuê Ph?m, Fawaz Turki, and Aurora Mardiganian.