Global Minorities: Stories of Diversity, Resistance and Survivance

Catalog description

This course studies the differences and intersections of the experiences of minority peoples across the globe, through case studies of three geographic contexts: contemporary Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The first section of the course examines the historical development, criticism and debates of multiculturalism and ethnic diversity in post World War II Europe, through treatments of these themes in contemporary film and other media. The second case study briefly introduces the history of Native Americans in the United States, then hones in on recent cultural critiques, legal challenges, and political movements mounted by Indigenous communities, as they confront the legacies of settler colonialism. The third unit examines gender and immigrant/refugee inequalities in Arab countries, exploring issues of freedom, labor, and citizenship, examining social norms, the legacy of colonialism, and post-independence political instabilities to explore systematic inequality and injustice leading to discrimination based on gender, race, socio economy, and geopolitics. The course uses cultural studies frameworks to examine how perceptions of minority identities are constructed and challenged through cultural products, such as film, literature, and mass media, created about and by the minority cultures studied. The goal is to develop a critical vocabulary to talk about perspectives on justice and injustice in a variety of geographic, political, and cultural contexts.