South Asian Diasporas

This course will familiarize students with major debates around questions in the study of diaspora and migration while providing a sense of their interlinkages with large scale socio-political processes such as the globalization of labor, the formation of social hierarchies, as well as movements for survival and belonging.

Students who complete this course will learn how to:

1) Use and evaluate primary materials through critical reading and interpretation
2) Conduct close readings of key texts in multimedia formats (posters and ephemera, digital archives, art and cultural production, manifestos, etc.)
3) Evaluate divergent perspectives and representations by combining historical accounts with memory and personal narratives
4) Adopt methods of public outreach and neighborhood ethnography to understand the imprint of the past on the present
5) Present arguments cogently and logically in writing and speaking, including through collaborative learning and presentation