THEME: Migrations
Millions of people today live outside the nations of their birth. Whether because of war and conflict and their aftermath or because of economic or political duress, migration has remade the demographic, social, economic, political and cultural landscapes of many societies around the world. The Rifkind seminar sought to interrogate experiences of migration, deportation, exile – and their aftermaths – through multiple disciplinary lenses. Participants focuses on, for example: representations of the migration experience in memoir and fiction; studies of how and when new migrants are incorporated into existent societies or create new ones; or of current approaches to immigration, citizenship and societal membership, including debates over “multi-culturalism” and “pluralism.” Some focused on a specific geographical or temporal context or on more general questions of philosophy or policy.
Readings
- Seyla Ben Habib and Judith Resnick, Migrations and Mobilities. NYU Press, 2009
- Selya Benhabib, The rights of others: aliens, residents, and citizens. Cambridge University Press, 2004
- Tara Zahra, The Lost Children. Harvard University Press, 2011
- Akram Khater, Inventing Home: Emigration, Gender and Middle Class in Lebanon. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2001
- Thomas Naill, The Figure of the Migrant. Stanford University Press, 2015
- Hannah Arendt, “We Refugees.” Menorah, 1943
- Hsiao-Hung Pai, Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants. Verso, 2013
- Woodward and J.P. Jones, III. 2005. “On the Border with Deleuze and Guattari,” In B/ordering Space, H. van Houtum, O.
- Kramsch, and W. Zierhofer, eds. Hampshire: Ashgate, pp. 233-48.
Guest Speakers
Timothy Snyder, Yale University
Tara Zahra, University of Chicago
Akram Khater, North Carolina State
Jennifer Yusin, Drexel College
Participant List
- Beth Baron, Professor of History
- Chad Kidd, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
- Daniel Gustafson, Assistant Professor of English
- Elazar Elhanan, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies
- Elizabeth Mazzola, Professor of English
- Ellen Handy, Professor of Art
- Katherine Ritchie, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
- Michelle Y. Valladares, Lecturer in Poetry, English
- Mikhal Dekel, Professor of English, Seminar Leader
- Robert Higney, Assistant Professor of English
