Refugees: Real Lives, Real StoriesRefuge

Refugees have experienced mass displacement due to wars, genocides, racial, ethnic, and political conflict, climate change, several forms of inequality, and more. This course offers a global understanding and stories of the causes and consequences of displacement as a global issue historically and today. Throughout history, refugees have shared memories and transnational ties across borders shaping diasporas and influencing cultures in cities around the world. Today, we continue to see people displaced and seeking refuge carrying their heavy stories while building new lives. In this class, you will learn and be able to differentiate between refugees, asylum seekers, irregular migrants, displacement, diaspora, immigration & migration, resettlement, humanitarianism, and forms of exile. Using an anthropological lens, students will learn how to use abstract data into human-centered narratives and social realities. We will examine a series of texts and films that illuminate these experiences. Students will also engage in hands-on anthropological research, field visits, and immersive excursions.