​​   The mass movement of people – voluntarily or by force – is arguably one of the biggest stories of our time. How do we define the different types of people on the move, what are the forces driving their mobility and what protections and rights are they entitled to? This interdisciplinary course introduces the central concepts, main debates as well as national and international case studies in refugee and migration studies.

The impacts of global migration are all around us – from the food we eat, the shows we watch, to the clothes we wear. Yet, the origins of these impacts often go unexplored in our multicultural society. This interdisciplinary course examines migration and diaspora cultures in historical and comparative perspectives, including patterns of forced displacement and migrant labour, and issues of citizenship, racism, and gender and ethnic identity. Using films and podcasts, this course utilizes different forms of storytelling and documentation to explore the complicated topics of displacement, immigration, labour migration, gender, and racism. Through the focus on food, this course will explore how waves of human migration have impacted our cuisine and students are encouraged to explore these topics further through cooking diasporic dishes.

This course is an enquiry-based learning seminar centered on posing questions, problems and scenarios as opposed to simply presenting established facts. For various cases students will be asked to identify ‘what we know,’ ‘what we don’t know,’ and ‘what we need to find out.’ Students will then volunteer to cover a research topic under ‘what we need to find out’ and present their findings in the next class. This approach combined with debating and role-play is intended to facilitate student interaction for intellectual and personal growth.

This course will provide students with an enquiry-based seminar into the significant, inter-connected and complex issues of climate change, climate justice and climate refugees. This course will provide an introduction to the defining issue of our century: climate change. Students will learn about the issues of climate change, disasters and displacement and discuss the implications of these phenomena on humankind and the possible individual and governmental solutions that exist.