Instructor / Founding Member: A Lexicon of Migration;
Media Studies/Human Rights & International Law;
Bard Network Course: Al-Quds Bard College in collaboration with Bard College, New York, US, American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgizstan, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary and Bard College Berlin, Berlin, Germany;
Spring Semester 2019.
Migration is one of the most important and contested features of today’s interconnected world. In one way or another, it has transformed most if not all contemporary nation-states into “pluralist,” “post-migrant,” and/or “super-diverse” polities. And it affects everyone—regardless of their own migratory status. This course examines the history of migration from local, national, and global perspectives, with particular emphasis on the uneven economic and geopolitical developments that have produced specific forms of mobility into and through the U.S. The course also traces the emergence of new modes of border regulation and migration governance as well as novel forms of migrant cultural production and representation. Above all, it aims to provide students with the tools to engage critically with many of the concepts and buzzwords—among them “asylum,” “border,” “belonging,” “citizenship,” and “illegality”—that define contemporary public debates. While many of the readings are based in the field of anthropology, the course also includes texts from cultural studies, geography, history, literature, philosophy, political theory, and sociology. The course thereby aims to provide students with a broad interdisciplinary introduction to migration studies.
A Lexicon of Migration is a Bard/HESP network course that will collaborate with similar courses at Al-Quds Bard, the American University of Central Asia, and Bard College Berlin