AANA17103U The Anthropology of Migration, advanced course - CANCELLED

Volume 2017/2018
Education

Please note that the course has been cancelled for Spring 2018.

Content

Anthropologists no longer view migration as necessarily antithetical to settled life, but rather as a resource that is integral to ongoing social, economic and cultural mobilities. This course will look at different forms of migration and how they are shaped by migrants as well as the migration regimes that seek to control them. This will be done by exploring some of the ethnographic case studies and related theoretical and methodological approaches that have appeared in recent years.

We will investigate how migration, on the one hand, is perceived and practiced as a resource and, on the other, viewed and treated as a potential security risk in different socio-economic and cultural contexts. Central questions will be: What kinds of social and personal aspirations and which structural opportunities and constraints shape current migration processes? How can we capture these processes in ethnographic research? And what is the methodological and analytical purchase of concepts such as social imaginaries, mobility/immobility, adventure, migratory paths, borderlands, securitization, legality/illegality, uncertainty and potentiality?

Learning Outcome

Knowledge

  • Knowledge of different forms of migration

  • Knowledge of major theoretical and methodological approaches to migration in anthropology

  • Knowledge of how different approaches shape our understanding of migration

 

Skills

  • The methodological, analytical and theoretical skills necessary to identify migration from an anthropological perspective

  • The methodological, analytical and theoretical skills necessary to investigate migration from an anthropological perspective

  • The methodological, analytical and theoretical skills necessary to critically analyze migration from an anthropological perspective

 

Competences

  • Present and critically discuss central issues in anthropological migration studies

  • Define a well-defined anthropological research problem concerning current migration issues

  • Write a well-structured essay drawing on relevant theory, method and ethnographic material from the course

BSc students: 500 pages obligatory literature.

MSc students: 500 pages obligatory literature + 200 pages of literature chosen by students. Literature chosen by students must be relevant to the course’s subject matter.

Course literature will be available via Absalon

A combination of lectures and seminars, plus possible excursion and supervised exercises
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 44
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 121
  • Total
  • 207
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)

The students will receive written feedback on their research problems, and on the final essay

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Essay length: 21,600–26,400 keystrokes for an individual submission. 6,750–8,250 keystrokes per extra member for group submissions. The maximum number of students who can write an essay in a group is four.
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

1. re-exam:

An essay with a revised problem statement must be submitted at the announced date. The students must sign up for the 1. re-exam.

2. re-exam:

A new essay with a revised problem statement must be submitted at the announced date next semester. The students must sign up for the 2. re-exam.

Criteria for exam assesment

See description of learning outcome.