Critical Social Inquiry 0169 - Migration Through Film

The dramatic increase in transnational migrations has prompted new debates by policymakers, activists, and scholars over the expanding global economy, cultural diversity and tolerance, and national and human security. We cannot intelligently engage these debates without first understanding the reasons for these migrations and the perspectives of migrants themselves. Using documentaries, feature films, and ethnographic works, this course will explore a variety of migrant lives and the processes that structure them. Why do people decide to go abroad? What effect does their migration have on communities at home? What is it like to be a migrant worker; to grow up as the "second generation"; to have a transnational family? What are the conditions of trafficked women and refugees? And finally, how do these experiences differ according to geography, citizenship, class, gender, age, ethnicity, race and religion? Through class discussions and analytic essays, students in the course will critically explore transnationalisms and compare and contrast the ways migrants are represented in films, public discourse, and in anthropology.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, viewing, research and writing.