SHUM 4584

Bordering Humanity: Race and Migration in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

This course is an historical introduction to the study of borders, race, and migration in the modern Middle East and North Africa. We will explore the fundamental migration events that have shaped the Middle Eastern and North African history, including global settler movements, enslavement and forced migration, partitions and population transfers, and contemporary refugee crises. We will discuss how race and migration shaped successive border regimes and competing world orders from the 19th century to the present. Analyzing a diverse array of primary sources from legal texts and maps to poetry and literature, we will pursue answers to questions such as: What are the legal, social, and political structures which govern international migration? What laws, ideas, and affects construct political borders? What happens to those who breach them? How do the legacies of racial slavery, settler colonialism, and ethno-nationalism unsettle the borders of contemporary Middle East and North Africa?

When Offered Fall.

Distribution Category (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (CA-AG, HA-AG, LA-AG)
Course Attribute (CU-ITL)

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