In the light of recent calls to “decolonize the university,” this course will stimulate students to question assumptions about collective identities by thinking comparatively across space and time, considering the role that migration has played in the cultural formation of societies. Enduring structures of racial hierarchy that underpin social organization and representation will be at the center of critical analysis. Focusing both on movement and entrapment, the materials and the pedagogical approaches employed will activate students to examine political rhetoric and policies regulating human mobility through the lens of creative interventions from literature, cinema, video, and music.

Note: This class will be taught in English. Who is a migrant? Who claims belonging in a country as a native? Can migrants achieve the status of “native” through settlement and assimilation? And if so, why is settlement a condition for full membership and participation in society? Which environmental transformations are associated with migration? Is there any hope for solidarity? Does art hold any promise for imagining a more equitable future? This course will stimulate students to question assumptions about collective identities based on remembrance and forgetting. We will think comparatively across space and time, considering the role that migration, border control, and structures of racial hierarchy have played in the cultural formation of societies. Focusing on both movement and entrapment, students will examine political rhetoric and policies regulating human mobility through the lens of creative interventions from literature, cinema, video, and music. Case studies from the US and Germany will convey a nuanced understanding of assigned and assumed identities that transcend census categories of diversity. This comparative perspective on race, ethnicity, and citizenship will enable students to recognize patterns and repetitions in common arguments brought forward against the presence of “foreigners.”

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills