506455-HS2025-0-MA Seminar Critical humanitarian and reflexive migration studies: solidarities in times of turmoil





Root number 506455
Semester HS2025
Type of course Seminar
Allocation to subject Social Anthropology
Type of exam not defined
Title MA Seminar Critical humanitarian and reflexive migration studies: solidarities in times of turmoil
Description Be aware: if you sign in for the course, you signed in for the exam!

In the 2000s, scholars in Europe were puzzled by the persistence of a shared sense of humanity in societies that were otherwise openly hostile to migranticized people. Despite exclusionary practices, European societies continued to collectively acknowledge and respond to human needs and suffering. Twenty years later, this puzzle must be reconsidered: Academic engagement with migration now faces de-democratizing governance and an authoritarian consensus in an increasing number of nation-states, with a particularly focus on migration, sexual identity and gender as their main targets. Recent academic debates have brought the anti-migration, anti-queer and anti-gender politics of (il/liberal) democracies to the forefront. Simultaneously in Europe and beyond, asylum seekers and other migranticized people are criminalized and confronted with fiercely repressive discourses on ‘integration’, deportation, anti-asylum, and the end of family reunification. In addition, migration and refugee studies have been criticized for reproducing hegemonic power relations and concomitant forms of social and political exclusion. Amidst this ongoing turmoil of political, economic, and humanitarian upheavals, migration studies is critically reassessing its own role in shaping these challenges, calling for greater reflexivity and a rethinking of its theoretical and methodological approaches.
Facing these challenges, this course aims to critically examine current debates in humanitarian and migration studies. It does so by looking at the flipside of these developments. Concretely, we will focus on political solidarity as a concept and movement that seek to combat deterrence, deportation, and the criminalization of migration, while advocating for justice, equality, and inclusion. We will reflect on consequences and practices of implicated subjects, be it NGOS, migranticized people, individuals, state actors and so on.
ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course) Registrations are transmitted from CTS to ILIAS (no admission in ILIAS possible). ILIAS
Link to another web site
Lecturers Prof. Dr. Sabine StrasserInstitute of Social Anthropology 
ECTS 7
Recognition as optional course possible Yes
Grading 1 to 6
 
Dates Thursday 18/9/2025 16:15-18:00
Monday 6/10/2025 10:15-17:00
Friday 17/10/2025 10:15-17:00
Thursday 27/11/2025 10:15-17:00
Friday 28/11/2025 10:15-17:00
Friday 28/11/2025 17:15-18:30
 
Rooms
 
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