12308

ANTH / GIS 224

A Lexicon of Migration

Jeffrey Jurgens

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 203

D+J

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies; Global & International Studies (GIS core course); Human Rights

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. A Lexicon of Migration is a Bard/HESP (Higher Education Support Program) network course that will collaborate with similar courses at Bard College Berlin, Al-Quds Bard, and the American University of Central Asia.

Class size: 22

12358

HIST 213

Immigration:American Politics

Joel Perlmann

W F 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 202

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; American Studies; Human Rights; Sociology

Dreamers and DACA, illegal aliens, dangerous Muslims, fear for jobs, “populism” gone rampant. During and since the 2016 presidential election, immigrants and immigration policy have played a central role in American political debate and the rise of Donald Trump. There are also plenty of apparent parallels in Europe. Some of these developments are surely novel and we will try to specify just what is novel in the American case. At the same time we will ask, what is not so new? After all, immigrant cultural differences, race, and jobs often have been familiar themes in American political history. Class readings will focus both on historical accounts of the immigrant in American politics – and in emerging understandings of the present instance.

Class size: 22

12392

THTR 257

Arendt in Dark Times

Roger Berkowitz

Emilio Rojas

W 1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH RESNICK

D+J

Cross-listed: Human Rights; Political Studies This interdisciplinary studio course will investigate the writings and philosophy of Hannah Arendt on and around the questions of refugees, racism, and nation-states and use them as the basis for the creation of collaborative performance-based projects. Using Arendt’s archives and philosophy, alongside related texts, we will seek to understand the current dark times through the lens of the refugee crisis. We will discuss issues of immigration and refugees, totalitarianism, racism, xenophobia, violence and the human condition through in depth readings of her writings as well as opposing political views. After a period of immersion in Arendt's universe, students will be divided into cross-disciplinary groups and will create original performance using her texts, and learn to read her writings using different voices and gestures. Beyond Arendt’s own work we will read contemporary and 20th century poetry, and explore contemporary performance and artistic practices that respond to the themes of the class.

Class size: 20

12415

HR 222

Migration and Media

Emma Briant

Th F 10:10 am-11:30 am

RKC 200

D+J

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities

This course explores in depth the role of media in the global refugee and migration crisis. We will begin by examining the causes of migration and recent trends, and then turn to theories of media and representation and how they can help us understand the role of political rhetoric and mainstream media reporting. Students will examine media representation and political rhetoric in relation to a number of international examples including: citizenship by investment programs used by wealthy elites, economic migration to America, and the refugee crisis. The course will consider theories of political communication, rhetoric, audience understanding and the impact of media representations of migration on migrants and their communities.We will examine how new media forms and developments in algorithmic propaganda are being used to advance false narratives. Students will also consider the practical and ethical implications of new technologies, including how they can both enable integration and allow for the social control of migrant flows and the suppression of human rights.

Class size: 18

12510

WRIT 348

Documentary Fiction

Valeria Luiselli

M 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 310

Cross-listed: Latin American & Iberian Studies; Human Rights

This course is centered on the relationship between method, process, and final result of a work. How does the creative process determine or at least leave a trace in the last version of a piece? In looking at a diverse range of pieces –textual, visual and audio– we will discuss method and process, and think of the ways that these are readable in the final version of a work. We will be concentrating on the different ways that we can document and creatively respond to the current situation at the US-Mexico border. We will be paying particular attention to examples of pieces where the artist or writer has proceeded by documenting the everyday, and has, in some way or the other, allowed his or her process to manifest in the final piece. Finally, we will of course be thinking in the ways that we, too, can shorten the distance between method, process and final outcome in our own work.

Class size: 12

12442

PS 323

Global Mobilities & Borders of Exclusion

Sanjib Baruah

T 10:10 am-12:30 pm

ASP 302

Cross-listed: Asian Studies; Global & International Studies; Human Rights

Large numbers of people in the world live and work in countries other than where they were born. This is not new. Mass migration has long been integral to global processes that have shaped the modern world. But while this migration occurred for a long time across imperial geographical spaces, the territorial order of formally sovereign states is to a significant extent premised on a disavowal of migration. When making citizenship laws after decolonization, many new states of Asia and Africa had to consider the legacy of colonial era migration. While the plight of the Rohingya has now morphed into a full-blown crisis, their disenfranchisement has its roots in the idea of “indigenous races” embedded in Burmese citizenship laws of 1948. Some of the Gulf states of the Middle East where foreign workers are the vast majority of residents and citizens constitute a privileged minority, represent another anomaly of this new territorial order. Drawing on these and other examples, the course will seek to historicize the modern territorial order and its rules governing citizenship and work.

Class size: 15

12476

LIT 248

Strangers from a Distant Shore: The Foreign In Japanese Literature

Nathan Shockey

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 304

FLLC

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

Japan is often depicted in the popular imagination as a “unique” and remote land long detached from other regions and traditions — but nothing could be farther from the truth. This class explores the integral roles of ostensibly foreign forms of writing, thought, and representation throughout the history of Japanese literature, from the earliest times to the present moment. The class begins with the introduction of kanji writing in the ancient period and moves through the influence of Tang poetry on Japanese verse, Inner Asian precedents for medieval folk tales, and the place of Chinese ghost stories in the evolution of popular vernacular fiction. We then consider the pivotal functions of translation from European languages in the genesis of modern literature, writings by Japanese authors on their experiences overseas, texts by Korean-Japanese authors, and contemporary narratives by migrants from South and Southeast Asia. We will trace a deep view of the contours of Japanese literary history while investigating Japan’s long-standing connectedness to the world in contrast to the nationalist fantasy of the homogeneous ethno-canon.

Class size: 18