Diaspora: The Experience of Migration, Displacement and Difference

Transnational migration is a central process in globalisation and a key experience of our contemporary world. The course introduces students to theoretical understandings of diaspora, its relationship with associated ideas such as migration, cosmopolitanism and transnationalism, and its significance as an analytical tool for understanding modern social and cultural formations. It centres on the analysis of the cultural and social concomitants of transnational migration and diaspora in the post-colonial world. Whilst issues such as globalisation, the international division of labour and the state remain important to this, the emphasis throughout the course is upon the lived experience: the ways in which different people experience and make meaningful migration, displacement and difference. The course explores the concepts of `home`, `belonging` and `identity` through the prism of diaspora. In addition to addressing how diasporic spaces, networks and practices are articulated and performed, the course also examines new strands of theoretical and empirical research which document transmigrants` dense material connections and other engagements with homelands.