Who Needs Migration Studies: Critical Perspectives on Migration, Ethnography, and Knowledge Production
Ph.D. -course
- ECTS credits
- 5
- Teaching semesters Spring
- Course code
- SANT910
- Teaching language
- English
- Resources
- Schedule
Course description
Objectives and Content
This summer seminar invites participants to explore the unique contributions of ethnography to the study of migration. It will engage with critical issues in anthropology with an eye to challenging epistemic violence and identifying analytically, methodologically, ethically and politically meaningful ways to approach human mobility. Topics engaged will include the fetishism of the field and the "voice," ethnographic authority, ethnographic theory-making, and the centrality of lived experience and contextualization. Emphasis will also be placed on the importance of ethnographic humility as a methodological and ethical stance.
Through dialogue, collaborative experimentation, and collective study, we will aim to create a space for decolonial thinking and radical forms of world-building. We will explore the potentiality within migration studies to create new ways of knowing, but we may also seek to dismantle, reframe or reimagine the field altogether.
Learning Outcomes
- Knowledge of key issues in anthropological scholarship regarding migration and displacement, and in migration studies more broadly.
- Demonstrate advanced knowledge of ethnographic approaches to the study of migration and mobility.
- Reflect critically on the ethical, political, and epistemological implications of migration
- Apply methodological tools for approaching migration research in a more ethically responsible and meaningful manner.
- Communicate complex analytical perspectives on migration to both academic and non-academic audiences.
ECTS Credits
Level of Study
Semester of Instruction
Summer
June 26-28 2027 (Participants should plan to arrive June 25 and depart June 29).
Submit your application here: Application form SANT910
Deadline for applications: December 1, 2026
Place of Instruction
Recommended Previous Knowledge
Credit Reduction due to Course Overlap
Access to the Course
PhD
There are no disciplinary restrictions, but familiarity with ethnographic methods is required.
Admission to the course will be determined based on the student’s CV and application. Participants who are not enrolled in a PhD program will be considered on a case by case basis.
Teaching and learning methods
Compulsory Assignments and Attendance
Forms of Assessment
50% of assessment: Each participant will be responsible (with others) for one segment of the course with reference to one of the themes addressed in the course description (perspectivism, relationality, and theorizing).
50% of assessment: A reflection, delivered after the course, that may entail multimedia as well as written elements. Regardless of format, submissions will be assessed according to the learning objectives.