The UNHCR estimated that more than 110 million people worldwide were forced to flee their homes by mid-2023. Have you thought about the structural processes involved in such mass displacement of people? Have you critically investigated the experience of refugeehood and statelessness? Did you critically reflect on the interplay between territory, identity, and nationhood? What political processes transform people from ‘humans’ to ‘neoliberal refugee subjects’? This course examines these topics and questions. Powerful states and empires have historically dominated ethnic minorities, Indigenous, and colonized populations to purify 'national' territories. This course investigates how the contestation over territorial stretches shapes the reproduction of history and identity. Students will examine different cases of ‘national’ claims over territories and investigate the structural violence embedded in forced migration and displacement.
