HIST1101 - 01 - Introduction to Migration Studies

(H) Historical Consciousness (HI) Historical Inquiry (SJ) Social Justice

This introductory course is designed to prepare students to study issues related to immigration and migration from the perspective of different disciplines and using varied methodologies. The course has two main goals: first, to equip students with a solid historical context of debates related to global migrations and immigration-in particular, debates about race, ethnicity, diaspora, assimilation, integration, exclusion, citizenship, border policies among others. This section is inspired by transnational and glocal approaches. The second goal is to expose students to a variety of research methods and literatures, spanning from history to anthropology, sociology and art. During the semester students will first read from different disciplines and compare approaches on similar topics. (Each instructor will capitalize on his/her expertise). Students will be using a wide range of research material such as primary sources and archival resources, case studies, qualitative and quantitative analysis. In this way, students will acquire and be challenged by comparative and interdisciplinary analyses of migrations. Students will then be required to apply the learned interdisciplinary knowledge to an independent project. They will work on a topic of their choice, research how such topic is discussed in different disciplines and with different approaches; apply one approach and compare it to at least one other. At the end of the semester, each student will present on his/her findings.