BSc Geography with International Study

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Migration, Conflict and Social Change

Course unit fact file
Unit code GEOG32032
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 3
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

We are living in what has been termed ‘The Age of Migration’. The cultural turn in Human Geography transformed understanding on the lives and experiences of migrants and their spatialities. In this course we will examine the contributions of geographers to the theorizing and study of migration. The course takes a primary focus on the British Empire and the legacies of colonialism to understand migration patterns, processes and lived experiences; however there is scope to investigate other examples of global migration across the course and assessment. To critically advance knowledge and understanding with the geographies of migration we draw on theories of post-colonialism and anti-racism strategies, with reflection on ethnicity, race and racialisation and minority religion, and reflect on the important contributions of feminist and intersectional approaches. For instance we will consider the post-colonial interconnections between areas of Pakistan and Manchester in the Textile and Garment Industry, that continue to impact space, place and lives today. In the second half of the course we will deepen your knowledge of key concepts including transnationalism, mobilities, encounter, integration, citizenship and belonging. We will use a series of ‘grounded’ examples to explore how these ‘big’ ideas are produced and transformed in relation to specific migrant lives in different places, looking at, for instance, recent Muslim arrivals and notions of citizenship. This involves consideration towards policy-making and national borders, but also institutions (e.g education, museums, archives), cultural forms (e.g music, fashion, food), and analysing different textual forms (e.g oral life histories, films, novels, newspapers).

Aims

• Critically understand key paradigms of human geographers’ contribution to migration theory in the twentieth/twenty-first century

• Evaluate the strengths of a transition from macro to micro level enquiry, qualitative and visual methods used to advance knowledge and understanding of human migration in different lives and places

• To enable students to link different theoretical debates with a range of mediums in a transdisciplinary, cross-sectoral field for understanding migration and migrant lives

• To examine and be able to explain issues of representation, embodiment and materiality in relation to migration with attention to policy and law, culture and institutions, and the media

• Develop and apply knowledge of migrant-led social change, including examples of urban, cultural and education-based case studies

Teaching and learning methods

The course is delivered through a range of lectures, seminars and student readings. Each week will comprise a 2hr lecture and 1hr seminar. These will draw on a wide variety of sources to show how the topic of migration is a key theme for Geographers, but best understood as interdisciplinary and cross medium. All course materials (subject to copyright laws) will be available on Blackboard. It is anticipated learning will be face-to-face where Covid-19 safe, with potential for a blended learning approach of lectures online and seminars in person. There will be ongoing monitoring to ensure parity of learning experience. Discussion boards will be available for all online.

Knowledge and understanding

• Demonstrate knowledge, and the ability to explain, the contribution of Human Geography to migration theory with critical understanding of the cultural turn and mobilities turn in the twenty and twenty-first centuries

Intellectual skills

• Apply theoretical perspectives from cultural, social, political and feminist geography, and demonstrate the ability to explain, key conceptual debates including migration and mobility, transnationalism and translocalism, integration, citizenship, encounter and belonging to real life examples of migration and migrant lives

• Reflect upon, and demonstrate the ability to explain, how migration and migrant experiences are connected to Empire and colonial legacies

• Demonstrate critical understanding on how migration theory informs the transformation of society, including geographies of labour, education and culture.

• Show ability and confidence in self-directed learning

Practical skills

• Develop and demonstrate skills in knowledge production, written and oral

• Develop information handling skills, such as how qualitative and visual sources (oral life histories, ethnographies, photography, film, creative writing, archival research) can be used to gain insights into the experience of migration and everyday migrant lives

Transferable skills and personal qualities

• Assess the different ways that policy, media and social action influence knowledge and understanding of migration and migrants today

• Demonstrate the ability to develop high quality assignments that are well structured and imaginatively executed

• Develop and demonstrate the ability to synthesise complex material in oral contributions in taught hours and written forms in assessments

Assessment methods

Assessment Task:

One piece of coursework on how qualitative or visual methods informs theory of migration. The title will be provided to students at the beginning of Semester 2. Students can choose any relevant example that shapes understanding of global migration to answer the title.

 

Unseen examination:

Part A: Source Evaluation NB: close reading and analysis (1 to be chosen from a total of 4 sources)(25%)

Part B: Essay-style question (1 to be chosen from a total of 4 questions)(25%)

 

 

 

Length:

2500 word essay (excluding references)

 

 

 

 

3 day remote open book exam

 

Feedback:

Online and verbally, promptly in line with UoM assessment guidelines. Before exam assessment.

 

 

 

Online, promptly in line with UoM assessment guidelines.

Weighting:

50%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

50%

Recommended reading

Blunt, A. (2007). Cultural geographies of migration: mobility, transnationality and diaspora. Progress in human geography, 31(5), 684-694.
Gilmartin, M. (2008). Migration, identity and belonging. Geography Compass, 2(6), 1837-1852.
Gorman-Murray, A. (2009). Intimate mobilities: Emotional embodiment and queer migration. Social & Cultural Geography, 10(4), 441-460.
Halfacree, K. H., & Boyle, P. J. (1993). The challenge facing migration research: the case for a biographical approach. Progress in Human Geography, 17(3), 333-348.
Hyndman, J. (2012). The geopolitics of migration and mobility. Geopolitics, 17(2), 243-255.
King, R. (2012). Geography and migration studies: Retrospect and prospect. Population, space and place, 18(2), 134-153.
Ralph, D., & Staeheli, L. A. (2011). Home and migration: Mobilities, belongings and identities. Geography Compass, 5(7), 517-530.
Rogaly, B. (2020) The Migrant City: Living and Working Together in the Shadow of Brexit, Manchester University Press, Manchester. 
Raghuram, P. (2009) Which migration, what development? Unsettling the edifice of migration and development Population, Space and Place 15, 103–17.
Said, E. W. (1985). Orientalism reconsidered. Race & class, 27(2), 1-15.
Warren, S (2019) #YourAverageMuslim: Ruptural geopolitics of British Muslim women's media and fashion, Political Geography, 69, 118-127.
Waters, J. L. (2006). Geographies of cultural capital: education, international migration and family strategies between Hong Kong and Canada. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 31(2), 179-192. 
 
 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 20
Seminars 10
Independent study hours
Independent study 170

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Saskia Warren Unit coordinator

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