This course will examine migration in the Americas by exploring the responses of local communities and peoples in Central and South America to economic instability, climate change and international pressures both within and outside of the region using Anthropology as a lens. We will discuss the role of global power (and superpower) throughout the Americas, the connections between historic European and US action and contemporary migration, and the ways these intersect with issues such as indigenous rights, self-governance and environmental activism.
This course especially engages with the roles of Indigenous communities in understanding migration, nationalism and questions of borders, identity, and citizenship within the context of the Americas. Through research and reflection, students will be challenged to think creatively about what governance and nationhood mean to various actors within the multi-ethnic, multi-language context of the Americas and to apply this understanding to the questions of chosen and forced migration.