Module: HIS7007-30 Perspectives in Migration History

Level: 7

Credit Value: 30

Module Tutor: Dr Sarah Hackett

Module Tutor Contact Details: s.hackett@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module

The module explores migration history from a range of different local, national and international perspectives. It discusses how the history of migration is an inherent part of world history, and it addresses different waves of migration in, and debates pertaining to, Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. It considers migration across human history; voluntary and forced migration; the relationship between migration and agriculture, commerce, industry, empire, postcolonialism, and urbanisation; the role class, gender and religion play in the migratory experience and process; inclusion and integration strategies; and migrants’ experiences, stories and voices.

The module promotes an understanding of how and why migration history is crucial to understanding more recent and contemporary developments and debates, and reveals the benefits of studying migration across different chronologies, nation-states, continents, ethnic and religious minority groups, and political, economic and social settings. You will have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge research and a range of primary material, allowing you to truly engage with what is one of the most important and emotive subjects in contemporary societies on a global scale.

You can use this module as a foundation for your final dissertation or public history project, in negotiation with the respective module co-ordinators. Try to see this part of your planning for the course as a whole, and the ways in which you can put together the content of each module to support and inform your final piece of work.

2. Outline syllabus

The module starts with a broad thematic introduction to migration history from the earliest human migration to those of the twenty-first century. This will be followed by a series of more in-depth case studies that are rooted in what are still developing and emerging bodies of academic research. The themes and topics covered on this module include (but are not limited to):

• Migration during the shift from agrarian to industrial societies
• Decolonisation, colonial and post-colonial migration
• Africa and global patterns of migration
• Diasporas, the nation-state and globalisation
• Migrant illegality from historical perspective
• Gendered patterns of migration
• Old and new labour migration
• Forced and voluntary migration
• Migration and oral history
• Migration and the archival record
• Refugee movements
• Migration, cities and the local experience
• Migrants’ identities, cultures and religions
• Diaspora literature
• Migration & climate change

3. Teaching and learning activities

• Seminars, presentations, workshops, tutorials, archive visit
• Reading and exploration of core texts and primary material; discussion and analysis

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW
• Description: Oral Presentation and written précis (20 minutes and 500 words)
• % Weighting: 40%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW
• Description: Critical Essay (3000 words)
• % Weighting: 60%