This course was developed by Director of the AiE Critical Thinking Program at FU Berlin, Professor Dr. Vanessa Agnew, in collaboration with four AiE fellows – Dr. Zeynep Türkyılmaz, Dr. Sayed Mahdi Mosawi, Dr. Olga Selin Hünler, and an anonymous contributor.
This MA/advanced undergraduate course will be open to enrollment for university students around the world. Students begin by acquiring background knowledge about refugeeism, political exile, and forced migration in a global context. They go on to learn about the political, economic, and environmental conditions that force people from their homes, and about the changing conditions for the displaced in host countries. Students gain an understanding of the legal distinctions under international law between refugees, asylees, and political exiles, and are informed about the processes and regulations in Germany, specifically. By studying past and present works—novels, poems, personal testimony, graphic novels, film, and theoretical texts—students investigate the ways in which leaving home and adapting to new circumstances are depicted in various forms of cultural production. They enquire into the emotional, psychological, political, and socio-economic consequences of displacement, and uncover qualities of resilience, adaptability, and self-agency. Via the expert testimony of scholars, cultural producers, social workers, human rights activists, and refugees and exiles themselves, students gain further insights into global responses to mass human displacement. Video interviews, presentations, self-assessment tools, and other digital content have been created specifically for this course.
Students log into the course via the Moodle platform of the University of Duisburg-Essen.
All course videos can be accessed here.
Course Modules :
1. Refugees and the Law
2. Academy in Exile
3. Journalism in Exile
4. Flight from Afghanistan
5. What is a Refugee
6. Palestinians in the DIaspora
7. Ezidis in Historical Perspective
8. Stop the Boats: Australia’s Immigration Policy
9. Criminalising Refugee Aid
10. Life in a Refugee Camp
11. Germany’s Willkommenskultur ?
12. Building Community Support