Interdisciplinary border studies: gender and postcolonial perspectives

Veranstaltungsort: Universität Göttingen / Blockveranstaltung / Infoveranstaltung zu Semesterbeginn

1.413

Dozenten

Beschreibung

BLOCKSEMINAR IN GÖTTINGEN

Interdisciplinary border studies: gender and postcolonial perspectives
Winter semester 2016/17
Instructor: Visiting Professor Dr. Susanne Hofmann
Time/location: TBC
Contact: susanne.hofmann@uni-osnabrueck.de


COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course, we will trace the history and contemporary trends in borderlands studies and border theory. While most of the texts that we are going to work with fall into the category of empirically-based border studies, we will also engage with the most relevant achievements of cultural studies oriented border theory. Furthermore, we will address the limits and possibilities of both comparative and interdisciplinary border studies, and discuss the tension between the academic institutionalisation of border studies and social justice oriented no-border activism. Feminist and postcolonial interventions and revisions of border studies are central to this course, both of which have argued for border studies as a mode of praxis, linking activism and scholarship, and called for a renunciation of the centrality of European epistemology. We will work with examples from contemporary feminist and queer border studies that link local struggles with cross‐border organising pertaining to violence against women, labour rights, and sexual citizenship. This seminar is also an attempt to engage border theories originated from the European and North American academic context with the border perspectives and analyses that stem from scholars of the Global South.
The course is divided into five thematic blocks:
BLOCK I: Comparative and interdisciplinary border studies: perspectives from the Global South
In this initial block, we will scrutinise a comparative border studies framework, highlighting the relevance of the recognition of the heterogeneity of borderlands and border regions. We will also question a universalising, metaphorical use of the term “border” that emerged in cultural studies debates about the US-Mexico borderlands, thereby addressing the limits of interdisciplinary border studies. Special attention we will give to an analysis of coloniality and to decolonial practices in border contexts.
BLOCK II: Gender, sexuality, affect and border crossings
This block focuses on the gendered and affective strategies that actors use to cross international borders. Engaging with ethnographic studies conducted in different cultural contexts, we learn how both marriage and the sexual economy can become stepping stones to northwards migration. We will also discuss how the state, in an attempt to regulate its borders and discipline those who cross them, produces identities, such as “the gay immigrant”, through normative discourses and administrative practices. However, we will also learn how queer immigrants maneuver this system with varying degrees of agency and success.

BLOCK III: Borders, gender violence and necropolitics
Central to this block is to scrutinise how gender and structural violence, borders and migration are interlaced, and how they can interact to exacerbate violent dynamics in borderlands. Examining transit zones and transit migration, we will examine how structural forms of violence are reconfigured in local settings. We will also learn about the impact of the deportation of victims of trafficking, and how they are affected by economic insecurity and gender-based violence upon arrival.
BLOCK IV: Gender, transnationality and transformation
In this block we will discuss the topics of gender, transnationality and transformation in contexts characterised by spatial and economic inequalities, demonstrating how marginalised actors achieve to transcend the limited opportunities for upward social mobility through forging transnational intimate connections. Furthermore, we will debate the tensions, identity transformations and ethical struggles over locally expected gender-specific behaviours in the context of international mobility.
BLOCK V: Humanitarianism, paternalism and sex trafficking
In this block we will discuss contemporary discursive practices of anti-trafficking campaigns and how they have become a moral instrument used to push through anti-immigrant politics, targeting racialized migrants. We will also scrutinise how one strand of transnational feminist activism, concerned with the rescue of victims of trafficking, has become intricately interwoven with paternalistic and punitive agendas.

Course assignment
Students who aim to be credited for the course are expected to attend at least 80% of the sessions and participate in the class discussions. To obtain 4 LP, students will have to present a summary of one of the readings including a critical commentary in class (presentation of 10-20 min). Depending on the number of participants there will be the option to hand in a 2-3 page written summary and commentary). To obtain 6 LP, students will have to submit a short written essay of 7-10 pages. The essays must be sent as a word document to the instructor’s email address (see above).

Assignment deadline
TBC

Note on late Submissions
Assignments are expected on the indicated deadline (which is still to be confirmed), unless otherwise stated. Requests for changes in the submission deadline should be made prior to the due date.

Access to the readings
All readings will be made available on Stud.IP at the beginning of the course.

Weitere Angaben

Ort: 22/106
Zeiten: Termine am Mittwoch, 26.10.2016 12:00 - 14:00
Erster Termin: Mittwoch, 26.10.2016 12:00 - 14:00, Ort: 22/106
Veranstaltungsart: Blockseminar (Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen)

Studienbereiche

• Sozialwissenschaften > Master Internationale Migration und Interkulturelle Beziehungen (IMIB) > Modul 5: Migrationsregime
• Sozialwissenschaften > Master Internationale Migration und Interkulturelle Beziehungen (IMIB) > Modul 6: Migrationsforschung in der disziplinären Vertiefung

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