Migrant Media in New York City

Catalog description

The course will engage with aspects of media, migration, and movement in New York City, which is home to the largest population of so-called immigrants, with as many as 800 languages spoken, and is also the largest metropolitan economy in the world. The particular confluence of commerce, migration, and urban density in New York produces very specific cultural forms. Students will be introduced to the diversity of the city's racial and ethnic communities, and their media production and consumption practices. We will interrogate the very term, "migrant," by watching films and media that interrogate border regimes and immigration laws, and explore how New York is turned into a space of belonging, and indeed develops its particular cultural vibrancy only on account of its staggeringly diverse populace. The course is designed to be interactive and engage in multi-modal learning - in addition to watching and discussing films, we will undertake field trips to film festivals, museums, archives, and particular neighborhoods.