| Description |
The Übung explores transatlantic migration from Europe to the Americas during the long 19th century (c. 1760–c. 1914), with a focus on Swiss, Italian, French, German, and Iberian experiences. Students will investigate migrant narratives and voices using digitized and non-digitized archival materials – such as letters, photographs, newspapers, administrative records, and memoirs – and share their findings across borders. The course will emphasize how migrants were integrated into their host societies and how they actively shaped the processes they were involved in. Special attention will be given to the role of migration in driving political, economic, social, cultural, scientific, and intellectual transformations in the emerging nations of the Americas.
The course is part of the ENLIGHT European University Alliance and will be conducted in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country, Spain, and the University of San Martín in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sessions will take place in person at the University of Bern combined with joint virtual meetings with the partner universities as well as team-based activities involving archival research and group work among participants from the different institutions.
Students will collaborate in international teams of three (one student from each institution) and jointly explore the historical dynamics of migration through case-based learning. In the early sessions, students will engage in a guided exercise on migration “push-pull factors”, comparing conditions in countries of origin (e.g., Switzerland, Basque Country, Spain) and destination (e.g., Argentina) using their own national contexts. This interactive approach will foster critical discussion and intercultural communication across linguistic boundaries (e.g., English, Spanish, French).
Later in the course, students will work together to identify and define a case study using digitized or locally available primary sources. These sources may be in different languages and will require translation and interpretation within the group. The result will be a final oral presentation and a creative deliverable showcasing their collective findings.
The presentation of results will include the production and publication of a podcast episode, which will also be developed during the course.
Introductory Literature
Baily, Samuel L, and Eduardo José Miguez. Mass Migration to Modern Latin America. 1st ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2003.
Cunha, Dilney, Peter Waltisberg, Beat Grüninger, und Hans-Jürg Fehr. Das Paradies in den Sümpfen: eine schweizer Auswanderungsgeschichte nach Brasilien im 19. Jahrhundert. 1. Aufl. Zürich: Limmat Verl. 2004.
Jarnagin, Laura. A Confluence of Transatlantic Networks: Elites, Capitalism, and Confederate Migration to Brazil. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press 2008.
Pagano, Tullio. Italy to Argentina: Travel Writing and Emigrant Colonialism. Amherst College Press 2023.
Ruiz, Marie. International Migration in the Victorian Era. Leiden; Brill 2018.
Steidl, Annemarie. European Mobility: Internal, International, and Transatlantic Moves in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. Göttingen: V&R unipress 2009.
Wüst, Mark (Hg.): Xaver Suters Reise nach Amerika 1849: Emigration aus dem Gebiet zwischen Walensee und Zürichsee. Zürich: Chronos, 2017. |
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