Course Description
Summary
How have transnational diaspora communities become new sites for the rethinking core concepts of psychology such as self and identity alongside culture and nation? How do people build self, identity, and community in multiple homes? Who belongs in where? In this course, we will follow a migrant-centered approach in investigating macro (e.g., institutional), meso (e.g., intergroup) and micro-level (e.g., individual) influences on migration, displacement, and belonging. We will build a basic migration/refugee studies lexicon (e.g. who is a refugee, how are refugees different than asylum seekers? What are the driving forces of migration?), while we challenge the idea that all immigrants go through a universal psychological process of acculturation and adaptation. Through different examples of various transnational immigrant communities in the world, we will develop a contextual understanding of self and identity. In order to familiarize you with key questions, theoretical debates, and issues within the field, our readings will range across a body of interdisciplinary and critical scholarship, and will include elements from digital media and pop culture.
