Refugee and Migration Studies: A Cultural-Historical Introduction

Catalog description

(same as GERMAN 3710 ). After the US, Germany and Russia have the world's largest migrant populations. This introduction to refugee and migration studies takes both geographic centers as lenses through which to view key concepts, categories and questions relating to why groups of people move from one region or locality to another. The course is organized by types of migration -- voluntary and involuntary--even as it problematizes this distinction and many others. In particular, we will investigate how migration relates to nation-building and national identity. Topics cover movements in (what are now) Germany and Russia from about 300 CE to the present day. Students will work not only with historiographical and scholarly texts, but also with novels, memoirs, paintings and film to explore the work that cultural representations of migration do. Credit Hour s : 3