Proseminar: Ethnicity and Migration in Culture and Literature

obligatory courses
proseminars

A class preparing the students to write a BA thesis within migration and ethnicity studies

Classroom

“We are all migrants,” the writer Moshin Hamid declared in his award-winning novel Exist West. However controversial statement this may me, it points to the centrality of migration and borders to our lives and to global futures. This proseminar explores the questions of migration, exile, refugee status in the US across cultural representations, as well as the questions of ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, closely connected with migration regimes. The proseminar puts a special emphasis on texts: novels, graphic novels, non-fiction, and welcomes a comparison between (literary) texts and digital and visual media. We will review migration history to the US, trying to understand the status of various ethnic groups and thinking about migration today as represented across literature and culture.

“We are all migrants,” the writer Moshin Hamid declared in his award-winning novel Exist West. However controversial statement this may me, it points to the centrality of migration and borders to our lives and to global futures. This proseminar explores the questions of migration, exile, refugee status in the US across cultural representations, as well as the questions of ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, closely connected with migration regimes. The proseminar puts a special emphasis on texts: novels, graphic novels, non-fiction, and welcomes a comparison between (literary) texts and digital and visual media. We will review migration history to the US, trying to understand the status of various ethnic groups and thinking about migration today as represented across literature and culture.

The aim of the course is also to critically analyze texts of culture in relation to the titular concepts, and in this way prepare students to analyze the phenomena of contemporary culture in their own work. Inviting guests specializing in a given topic academically, artistically or actively will be a vital element of the class. The class itself operates on a tight, carefully crafted schedule to make sure the students will complete the preparatory steps toward their BA thesis and finally write their BA theses on time.

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The craft of research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Burgett, Bruce, and Glenn Hendler, ed. Keywords for American Cultural Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2020.

Dubar-Ortiz, Roxanna, Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler, Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion. Boston: Beacon Press, 2021.

Hartman, Saidiya V. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route. New York: Farrar, 2007.

Lipsitz, George. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.

Lowe, Lisa. Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.

Sadowski-Smith, Claudia. The New Immigrant Whiteness: Race, Neoliberalism, and Post-Soviet Migration to the United States. New York: NYU Press, 2018.

Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and other Literary and Cultural Essays. New York: Granta Books, 2013.

Saldívar, José David. Trans-Americanity: Subaltern Modernities, Global Coloniality, and the Cultures of Greater Mexico. Duke University Press, 2012.

Schlund-Vials, Cathy J. "The subjects of 1975: Delineating the necessity of critical refugee studies." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 41, no. 3 (2016): 199-203.

Knowledge:

The student understands:

- The global body of knowledge encompassing theoretical foundations and general as well as specific issues relevant to cultural and literary studies on ethnicity and migration in the USA, along with their research methodology.

- The principles of public ownership of scientific results, including intellectual property protection.

Skills:

The student can:

- Utilize knowledge from cultural and literary studies on migration and ethnicity in the USA to creatively identify, formulate, and innovatively solve complex problems or conduct research tasks, including defining the purpose and subject of scientific research, formulating research hypotheses, developing research methods, techniques, and tools, and creatively applying them, drawing conclusions based on research results.

- Communicate in English on specialized topics at a level enabling active participation in the international academic community.

- Engage in scholarly discourse.

Social Competences:

The student can:

- Formulate their own critical opinions on issues related to cultural and literary studies on migration and ethnicity in the USA.

Attendance (2 unexcused absences are permitted)

active participation - 10%

presentation - 10%*

abstract plus outline - 20%*

the first chapter of a BA thesis- draft - 20%*

the first chapter of a BA thesis- final version - 30%*

The failure to attempt to complete any of the major milestones (marked with *), will result in the failure of the class.

Grading scale:

0-60 - 2

60-70 - 3

71-75 - 3,5

76-85 - 4

86-90 - 4,5

91-95 - 5

96-100 - 5!