Description

This course focuses on literary texts, autobiographical narratives by and about refugees, essays and photographs that narrate the experience of migration and the refugee crisis in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will be introduced to the relevant theoretical texts that delve into the issues of hospitality, human rights and democratic ethics and examine the growing phenomenon of statelessness in the present. The course also excavates the long durée of racism and nationalism that these texts try to challenge by unpacking the “minor histories” (Chakrabarty) and critiquing the ethnocentric and nationalistic grand narratives. Some of the questions we will be pursuing are: What are the neoliberal pitfalls and blind spots in the humanistic discourses in Europe and elsewhere that attempt to represent “les sans-terre”—the term Bruno Latour uses to refer to the ones “deprived of soil”—and thus democratize academic discourses and practices in and beyond the classroom? How can this new phenomenon of “being deprived of soil” be critically examined in discourses that are often co-opted by neoliberal politics and thought?

Aims

The aim of this course is to help senior students prepare a portfolio for graduate school and fully develop their research, writing and oral skills. Students will be evaluated on the basis of their participation and their portfolios that will include: two papers, one short response paper, one final research paper, and outline or powerpoint file of their seminar presentation. Instead of the final paper, students can opt for the final exam.