Migration and Challenges of Mobility and Belonging (HIST 2741) Instructor: Jan Musekamp.
Migration has been a main feature throughout human history and is a defining force in modern societies. The recent arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine and the Middle East in the European Union, and the discussions on the treatment of thousands of people fleeing violence and poverty in Central and South America on the US-Mexican border are only the latest examples of its enduring occurrence that has sparked repeated political discussions.
The main emphasis of the course will be on the cross-border movement of people, with a regional focus on the United States and Europe, and with strong comparative views on Asia and South America. We compare changing mobility patterns of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and how such changes transformed ways of migration and ideas of belonging. Another emphasis will be on the development of the modern state border and the modern passport system as an emerging obstacle for migrations. We will focus on the closely related discussions on inclusion and exclusion and how pandemics influenced ideas of “the Own” versus “the Other.” While the course is historical in scope, we will compare past processes with more recent occurrences of migration and the ongoing debates on the issue. Students will read a wide variety of scholarly works from the interdisciplinary field of mobility and migration studies. They will work collaboratively in groups to assess the authors’ views and will challenge the multiple approaches. The final research papers will engage with the readings and connect to students’ own research projects.