HST5617 - Moving People: Migration, Borders, and Belonging through Time

Movement, mobility, migration: they have shaped and continue to shape individual lives, communities, nations, and the globe. This module raises questions about the historical nature of borders and belonging. In order to reflect on contingency and transformation, we take an expansive spatial and temporal approach, stretching from the medieval to the modern world and using case studies from both the Western and non-Western worlds. By doing so, we will question dichotomies between mobility and stability, as well as assumptions of borders and settledness. Themes and topics may include: exile, empire, race, state- making, minorities, borders and policing. Illustrative case studies may include Anglo-Dutch crossings of the Channel in the 18th century; Population transfers under the League of Nations aegis in the early 20th century; Passports for the Indian diaspora from the 1950s-70s.