Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Seminar Topics and Questions

Term/Unit

Week

Topic

Notes

Term 1

Note for students: This schedule is now confirmed subject to any changes we choose to make together to support your own interests!

 

Week 1

Pre-Reading: Why (and whose) history of migration?

Think about: who is a 'migrant'? An 'immigrant'? A 'refugee'? Are these terms historically stable?

Unit 1

International Migration:

the USA

Unit 'provocation' reading: Shelley Fishkin, ‘Crossroads of Cultures: The Transnational Turn in American Studies--Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, November 12, 2004’, American Quarterly, vol. 57 no. 1, 2005, pp. 17-57. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/aq.2005.0004 – not a conventional research essay, but a call to arms for American Studies to become broader, more inclusive and less insular. Includes discussions of a wide range of topics and approaches, and a really interesting bibliography.

For more useful US sources, see here!

2

Making ‘immigrants’: immigration law and national citizenship

For discussion: what forces were at work in the shaping of national boundaries and identities in 19th century USA?

3

National Myths, International Migrants

How and why do nations develop 'myths' about migration and migrants?

4

Arrival: The Island Immigration Stations

Ellis ppt (produced by past students!)

Angel ppt

What do we gain from comparing Ellis and Angel Islands? How has the historiography of US immigration changed in relation to 'arrival' since the 1990s, and why?

5

Settlement: The Limits of Assimilationism and Integration

How did migrants to the US settle in their new homes? What barriers did they face, and what tools (ideological, cultural, legal and material) did migrants used to cross or challenge such obstacles?

6

READING WEEK

7

From ‘Braceros’ to ‘illegals’: (re) making Mexican ‘migrants’

When the border crosses individuals, are they 'immigrants' when they cross back? What if they are invited to cross, as a vital source of labour?

PUBLIC HISTORY TRAINING WORKSHOP

8

The Applied Project: How do we make the history of migration public?

This week we will meet in the Modern Records Centre to develop the skills and techniques required for the Applied Assignment. Please bring your applied assignment topics and your questions or concerns about this assignment!

Unit 2

Imperial Migration:

Britain and its empire

Unit 'provocation' reading: Brook Thomas, 'Civic Multiculturalism and the Myth of Liberal Consent: A Comparative Analysis', CR: The New Cenennial Review, 1:3 (2001)1-35 [Project Muse] Again, this essay offers a challenge to assumptions both in migration studies and in society.

You might also try this one, on historiography:

Rob Waters, 'Thinking Black: Peter Fryer’s Staying Power and the Politics of Writing Black British History in the 1980s', History Workshop Journal, vol. 82 no. 1, 2016, pp. 104-120. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/638767.

For a timeline of UK immigration laws, see here.

9

‘Civis Britannicus Sum’: forging an imperial citizenship

If the USA was 'a nation of immigrants', was Britain then a 'nation of emmigrants'?

10

From Prison Colony to ‘White Australia’

What counts as 'migration' in the Australian context? How did Australian identity become 'White'?

Winter Break

Term 2

Unit 2 (Continued)

Imperial Migration:

Britain and its empire

1

British Migrants in the 20thCentury: ‘£10 poms’ and ‘Home Children’ Did the nature or meaning of British emigration change with the end of empire?

2

'We are here because you were there': migration and the metropole

Britain has a long history as a migrant-receiving nation, but how does this history relate to the history of empire -- and why has inward migration from empire been so controversial?

3

'This Crowded Isle': ending Open Door Britain

When and why did migration restriction become a key aspect of policy and public debate? Has post-war Britain been an open or a closed nation in relation to migration?

4

Migration, multiculturalism, and medicalization

British responses to migration and settlement in the post-war era have often drawn upon medical data, claims and discourses. Why?

Unit 3

Global Migration:

Africa’s Diaspora

5

Models of African mobility: the forced and the free

How do histories and historiographies of slavery relate to those of migration from Africa?

6

READING WEEK

7

Imperial pasts and migrant presence: Africa in the metropole

How did empire help to shape and define the experiences of African travellers and migrants to Europe?

8

‘Money has no smell’: travellers, traders and ‘economic migrants’

What roles do class and race play in mediating responses to and the experiences of African travellers and migrants?

9

Homelands and Hostlands: hybrid homes or multiple identities

How do and how should migrants manage their multiple, intersectional identities? Do plural identities dilute or multiply 'belonging'?

Also: Module Feedback Day!

All your feedback is welcome, whether positive or negative! I am especially keen to hear your thoughts on the range and depth of the topics covered. Would you have liked to cover fewer topics in more depth, or to have sampled more topics in this expansive field? Do please also share your thoughts on individual weeks and readings, seminar practices, and the media archive.

 

10

Long Essay Writing

Workshop

This week, in response to student feedback from last year, we will spend time discussing the final assessment, the long essay. We will work on how to generate a good question, and explore research strategies and essay structures. Please bring your ideas, no matter how nebulous!

Term 3

Unit 4

(mis)Representing

the Migrant

1

(Week 2, T3)

Naming to control: 'Coolies', 'Yids', 'Yanks', and 'Dagos'; 'Wogs', 'Pakis', 'Towelheads', and 'Negros'

NOTE: this week will specifically address offensive and dangerous historical stereotypes, language and imagery. Please consult me if you have any concerns about or during our discussions of this sensitive material, or if the content of these weeks causes you distress.

 

2

Conclusion and Showcase: Ethnicity, exoticism and ‘multiculturalism’ Looking at our three case studies, how can we understand the continuities/discontinuities in both the experience of migration and in responses to it?