Im/mobilities: Migration, Displacement, and Exile

Catalog description

Scholars have long recognized the limitations of the conventional dichotomy between ‘voluntary’ economic migrants and ‘involuntary’ political refugees. An ethnographic approach to the study of migration can help us better understand the lived realities of migrants and the events and conditions that compel them to cross borders. Why are some migrants deemed worthy of protection while others are labelled as ‘illegal’ and still others are viewed as ‘expats’? How are classed and gendered notions of labor, the self, and the family (re)configured in migrant experience? How are the legacies of colonialism, capitalist extraction, and uneven development embedded in contemporary population movements and states’ attempts to manage them? In exploring these questions, students will engage perspectives and theoretical frameworks from sociology, anthropology, and urban geography to develop a multifaceted understanding of the political, economic, and ecological factors that influence the choice or necessity of migration and its consequences. Students will work on a project throughout the semester, developing a research question and pursuing it through an in-depth case study that builds an argument using social scientific findings as well literature, film, art, and/or journalism. Learning objectives for the course include deepening knowledge of contemporary migration issues and developing a written argument across multiple revisions using diverse source materials.