As the Fall semester approaches, BIMI has curated list Migration related courses to take this upcoming semester! Delve into migration/immigration discourse in these amazing classes some of whom are taught by BIMI affiliates.
- Cultures of Migration(link is external) - TU, TH 9:30AM-11:00AM
This course will stimulate students to question assumptions about collective identities based on remembrance and forgetting. We will think comparatively across space and time, considering the role that migration, border control, and structures of racial hierarchy have played in the cultural formation of societies. Focusing on both movement and entrapment, students will examine political rhetoric and policies regulating human mobility through the lens of creative interventions from literature, cinema, video, and music. - Immigration (Aliyah) and Israel's Ethno-Cultural Dynamics - TU, TH 12:30 pm - 1:59 pm
This course will map Israel’s social structure, identify its implications for social and economic inequality, and shed light on its role in structuring political loyalty, conflict and action. It will introduce students to relevant concepts and theories from sociology and political science, and findings from comparative research, that aid understanding of the Israeli case and place it in a broader perspective. - Gender and Transnational Migration(link is external) - M 3:00PM-6:00PM
What economic, social, and cultural forces impel women to migrate and shape their experiences as immigrants? How does gender, together with race/ethnicity and class, affect processes of settlement, community building, and incorporation into labor markets? This course examines gender structures and relations as they are reconfigured and maintained through immigration. It emphasizes the agency of immigrant women as they cope with change and claim their rights as citizens. - Contemporary Issues of Southeast Asian Refugees in the U.S(link is external) - TU 2:00PM-5:00PM
This course will introduce students to the sociocultural, economic, educational, and political issues facing Southeast Asian refugees in the U.S. While the course focus is on the Asian American experience, references will be made to the pre-migration experiences and histories of the Southeast Asian refugee groups. The processes and problems in the formulation of refugee programs and services in the U.S. also will be addressed in their implications for refugee resettlement and adaptation experience. Emphasis will be placed on comparative analyses of the Southeast Asian refugee communities. - Immigrants and Refugees in the U.S(link is external) - TU 2:00PM-4:00PM
Overview of immigration policy in the U.S. from an international and historical perspective. Theories of migration, transnationalism, and adaptation will be addressed, along with skills required for working with refugees and immigrants facing difficulties. Addresses the impact of policy on who comes to the U.S. and the circumstances newcomers and their families face once here. - Middle East: Post-Colonialism, Migration, and Diaspora (link is external)- M 2:00PM-5:00PM
The course focuses on the impacts of migration and displacement of people from postcolonial Middle East region and the U.S. legal, political, social, and religious discourse on cross-cultural and ethical issues which arise in immigration practice while placing the phenomena within a global and transnational context. Three separate groups in the US will be examined; Middle Eastern immigrants, El Salvadoran diaspora, and rightwing white communities. The course seeks to draw connections between Middle Eastern migration and diaspora in the colonial and postcolonial periods leading to the modern period of restrictive immigration policies, building of walls, targeting Arab and Muslim immigrants as well as all immigrants from the Global South. - The Refugee “Crisis” in Fiction, Film and Photography(link is external) - TU TH 9:30AM-11:00AM
This course seeks to accompany the journey of refugees attempting to cross borders into Europe. How are dominant views of the refugee “crisis” currently shaped by the media? How does activist or experimental art change these visions? We will use contemporary film, fiction, photography, VR platforms and the press, to explore the experiences and stories of those fleeing poverty, violence and climate change. How are the exiled trapped by land and sea borders? How do they confront, challenge, and cross these borders? - History of American Immigration Law and Policy(link is external)- TU 1:00PM-3:00PM
This seminar introduces students to major themes in the history of American immigration law and policy based on the intensive reading of classic and recent books in the field. Much of the latest scholarship on American immigration law and policy focuses on the mid- and late twentieth century, but this course covers a broader chronology starting in the colonial period. Themes to be explored in this course include forms of migration regulation in early America; state-level immigration control in the antebellum period; the relationship between immigration and citizenship laws; Chinese exclusion; immigration law enforcement at points of entry; the development of U.S. policies for immigration restriction, border patrol, deportation, refugees, and detention; and the evolution of the concept and category of unauthorized immigration. In addition to expanding students’ knowledge about these subjects, the course is designed to prepare students to undertake their own research projects. - Latina/o/x Sociology(link is external) - M, W, F 2:00PM- 3:00PM
The course examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Latinxs in the United States. It draws primarily from the social sciences to explore U.S. Latinx experiences and identity across national origin groups, immigrant generations, and colonial time periods. Themes include conceptualizations of Spanish/American settler colonialism, the US Border, panethnicity, racialization and categorization of Latinos, immigration and deportation, social movements, and acculturation. - A Critical History of the Bay Area(link is external) - M, W 11:30AM 1:00PM
This reading and composition course will address different forces that have shaped the space of the Bay Area, including settlement, immigration, labor, policing, and conservationism, as well as queer, Black, and disability power movements. You will be reading a variety of texts and producing writing across multiple genres engaging with these various themes. - The Philosophy of Race, Ethnicity, and Citizenship(link is external) - M, W, F 2:00PM - 3:00PM
This course explores philosophical questions of race, ethnicity, and citizenship, with special attention to the experiences of African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and indigenous peoples of the United States. Topics include the meaning of “race,” “ethnicity,” and “citizenship,” border control and immigration, reparations for past wrongs, discrimination and affirmative action, civic obligation and group solidarity, and the right to vote. - Global Environmental Politics- - TU, TH 9:30AM-11:00AM
Political factors affecting ecological conditions in the Third World. Topics include environmental degradation, migrations, agricultural production, role of international aid, divergence in standard of living, political power, participation and decision making, access to resources, global environmental policies and treaties, political strife and war. - Anti-Oppressive Social Work - M 2:00PM-4:00PM
This course prepares students to understand and practice diversity-sensitive, anti-oppressive social work. The course (1) builds awareness of power, privilege and marginalization embedded in each of our multiple and intersecting status dimensions (race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, social class, gender identity and expression, dis/ability, religion, (im)migration, etc.), in the context of social work, (2) involves students in the process of awareness and practice through experiential, self-reflective and interactive activities, and (3) promotes anti-oppressive social work practice skills at multiple levels including individual, group, organizational and community levels. - International Human Rights - TU, TH 3:30PM-5:00PM
This course will explore the philosophical evolution of human rights principles in the realm of political theory and the influence of such principles as they have transformed into a coherent body of law. We will focus specifically on issues in international human rights law; the approach will be both thematic and comparative. Topics will include but are not limited to: human rights diplomacy; the influence of human rights in international legal practice; cultural and minority rights; genocide and the world community; cultural relativism and national sovereignty; international law and international relations; individual and collective rights; migration, labor, and globalization; and national, international, and nongovernmental organizations.
- From Borderlands History to a History of Borders: An Inter-Racial and Transnational History of the Contemporary US-MX Division - W 4:00PM-7:00PM
This seminar will trace the historical manifestations of the U.S. Southwest’s porousness, mixtures, and transformations over four centuries. It will begin with Indigenous nations prior to Spanish colonial presence in the sixteenth century and end with the twentieth-first century's elaboration of border politics. The seminar aims to introduce students to the region’s multiple Indigenous nations and their relationships to colonial, settler, and national projects, the development of nation-states and border policing, the region's multiple racial projects and their chameleon, contagious-like quality, and (finally) the border's current militarization and expansion into the national political center. The seminar will emphasize intersectional approaches and highlight the role race, gender, sexuality and migration played in the construction of nation-state boundaries.