B4816 - Geographies of Migration (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2024/2025

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Global Cultures (cod. 6033)

Learning outcomes

This course is designed to provide students with a theoretical and empirical understanding of the geographies of migration control and of migrants’ struggles with a specific focus on Europe. At the end of the course unit students will have acquired awareness of debates in the domain of geography with respect to contemporary migration. Students will be able to provide an advanced understanding of key theoretical debates about migration, space and human geography. At the end of the course students will demonstrate a solid knowledge of contemporary migration and ability of critically engaging with migration geography literature and concepts.

Course contents

This first part of the module will introduce the students to the legal and political obstacles that some people across the globe face if they want to move to another country or to seek asylum. During the first two weeks, the module will explore the entanglements of security and humanitarian approaches to migration with specific attention to labour and asylum in Europe.

Drawing on critical migration scholarship, the second part will discuss the current and past geographies of migration in Europe and in the Mediterranean region.

In the third and final part, it will illustrate how migrant’s presence and movements are contained by focusing on key political technologies of mobility governance: camps, routes, the urban space, makeshift camps and detention centers.

Teaching methods

The module will run over five weeks. The explanation of course contents will be mainly delivered through lectures. In addition to that, students will be asked to work in seminar groups (every other week), to discuss the reading material and the topics covered in the module.

Attending students are required to attend at least 75% of classes.

Assessment methods

Attending students are requested

-to study the contents of the module explained during the classes

-to read the texts provided in the course bibliography (this will be shared on Virtuale and with students at the beginning of the module)

.

Non-attending students are requested:

-to read the texts from the course bibliography (shared on Virtuale)

-to choose and read two books from the following list:

Albahari, M. (2015). Crimes of Peace. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Anderson, B. (2013). Us and them?: The dangerous politics of immigration control. OUP Oxford.

Bhatia, M. & Canning, V. (eds) (2021). Stealing Time: Migration, Temporalities and State Violence. Routledge.

De Genova, N. & Peutz, N. (eds) (2010). The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and the Freedom of Movement. Duke University Press.

Fanon, F. (2008). Black Skin, White Masks. Grove Press.

Mezzadra, S. & Neilson, B. (2013). Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor. Duke University Press.

Moran, D., Gill, N. & Conlon, D. (eds) (2013). Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention. Ashgate.

Mountz, A. (2020). The Death of Asylum: Hidden Geographies of the Enforcement Archipelago. University of Minnesota Press.

Rigo, E. (2022). La Straniera. Migrazioni, asilo, sfruttamento in una prospettiva di genere. Carrocci Editore.

Sharma, N. (2020). Home Rule. Duke University Press.

Tazzioli, M. (2023) Border Abolitionism. Migration Containment and the Genealogies of Struggles and Rescue. Manchester University Press.


Evaluation method:

The course will be evaluated as follows:

Attending students:

1)oral exam (50%)

2)one essay of about 2500-3000 words (50%)

Enrollments for the oral exam will be made exclusively on Almaesami.

The oral exam will focus on:

For attending students: course contents, plus the texts indicated in the bibliography of the course

For non attending students: the texts indicated in the bibliography of the course, plus two books among the optional books indicated in the list.

2)The essay should be sent to Martina Tazzioli via email (martina.tazzioli@unibo.it) no later than 7 days before the date of the oral exam.

The topic of the essay will be one of the themes covered during the module and will be decided in agreement with the teacher during the module or, for non-attending students, via email.

Teaching tools

 

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office

All Power Point presentations for attending students will be available on Virtuale.

The slides serve as a didactic support and should not to be considered as exam matter.

Office hours

See the website of Martina Tazzioli