Migration is an issue of global relevance, with profound effects on economy, social structures, national and international politics, culture and identity. Migration may be a powerful factor of emancipation, personal and communal development and creative cultural impact, but it is also interconnected with the global unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity, international conflicts and refugees, politics of displacement, exploitation of labor, trafficking, overpopulation, segregated communities, insecurity, prejudice and racism. Consequently, past and present migration processes are inscribed in personal, communal, and national historical narratives and memories in most diverse ways, ranging from historiographies of success, development and optimism to narratives of conflict, poverty, suffering and trauma. Such narratives are channeled in politics, as concerns political programs, reforms and public political debate, national education, celebration of national rituals, as well as in the news media. In identity political discourse world wide, narratives of migration thus function as powerful tools for claims to political legitimacy and mobilization as well as to oppression and contest, appealing to shared perceptions of real or imagined pasts of migration, displacement, diasporization or conquest.
This course invites students to explore the multifaceted histories and realities of migration, as well as the political power associated with perceptions and memories of migration and displacement, with a focus on past and present migration processes in and from the Middle Eastern region. The course combines individual, Internet based studies and lectures, with a unique opportunity to intensive campus studies, lectures, discussions and fieldwork at the University of Ben Gurion in the Negev (Israel) and the Swedish Institute of Theology in Jerusalem.
| Study venues: Lund/Göteborg/Växjö and Irbid/Jerusalem/Beer Sheva | Contacts |
| Language: English | Torsten.Janson@cme.lu.se – Lund University |
| Period: This course is currently not offered by USI | |
| Pace: Half | Isabell.Schierenbeck@globalstudies.gu.se – Gothenburg University |
| Application via: This course is currently not offered by USI | Jonas.Sjolander@lnu.se – Linnaeus University |
