This course examines the role that religion, religious identity and religious actors play in the movement and displacement of peoples seeking refuge. Students will examine the history of migration in the twentieth century, the discursive and symbolic meanings that minorities and their religious identity take on within global movements and demographic shifts. They will learn about the role religious institutions play in providing refuge or assisting refugees and analyse how the migration of cultural myths, stories, art and traditions may contribute to creative exchange, resistance and memorial practices within the formation of minority identities.

10 x 2 hour seminars

N/A

None

■ Presentation of 10 minutes - 20%

■ Review/Report on a migration narrative (1000 words) - 20%

■ Essay (3,000 words) - 60%

This course aims to:

■ Familiarise students with the way migration has shaped the 20th and 21st centuries

■ Help students understand the symbolic meanings that religious culture and religious identity take on in the migration of peoples in the modern and contemporary period

■ Encourage students to reflect upon the role of religion, religious culture, and identity and belonging in scholarship, public discourse, and policy making in the field of migration

■ Expose students to some of the ways minority cultures and refugees transmit and preserve cultural history and memory

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Show a broad understanding of the history of migration in the 20th and 21st centuries and its impact

■ Understand the role religious institutions play in attitudes towards concepts of refuge and belonging

■ Analyse the role of memory in cultural productions by religious minorities within a range of media, such as film, literature, diaries oral history, and archival material

■ Appreciate the significance of the intersection of religion with other social identities in the processes of migration

■ Apply these insights to both empirical examples of migration, and discourses surrounding migration

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.