Topics In Anthropology (390-0-7)

Topic

Queering Transnational Migration

Instructors

Mert Kocak

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G32: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Queering Transnational Migration examines how gender and sexuality shape who can move, settle, work, and belong. We investigate how migration regimes construct "desirable" and "undesirable" migrants and distinguish between those deemed "deserving" and "undeserving" of rights, resources, and opportunities. Topics include migration theories and their feminist and queer critiques, asylum and refugee recognition, borders and citizenship, queer precarity and solidarity, and the ethics and methods of queer migration research. Through historical and contemporary case studies across varied geographies, we trace migration routes and relationships while questioning narratives that locate queer liberation in the Global North and repression in the Global South. We consider how sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics are named, interpreted, and contested across borders. Centering queer migrants' self-definitions, everyday practices, and collective struggles, we examine how they negotiate, reproduce, and contest dominant expectations about identity, visibility, and liberation. Their stories invite us to rethink familiar assumptions about kinship, citizenship, and home.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Explain key migration theories and evaluate their feminist and queer critiques.
2. Analyze how gender and sexuality shape borders, citizenship, asylum, and refugee recognition across national and transnational settings.
3. Examine how colonial histories and inequalities of race, class, gender, and sexuality shape access to mobility and protection.
4. Trace migration routes and relationships that challenge assumed divisions between the Global North and Global South.
5. Assess how migration transforms identities, relationships, and communities, and how queer migrants build solidarity and challenge systems governing mobility.
6. Critically evaluate ethical and methodological questions in queer migration research, including representation, power, and researchers' responsibilities.

Class Materials (Required)

All readings will be available on Canvas.

Class Notes

Students will be evaluated through:
• Class participation and preparation (10%): Thoughtful engagement with readings, discussions, and collaborative activities.
• Co-leading one seminar discussion (15%): Working with a partner, students will prepare discussion questions and facilitate a 25-30-minute conversation about the assigned readings.
• Two short reading responses (30%): Responses of 500-600 words each, worth 15% per response. One will compare arguments across assigned readings; the other will apply a course concept to a migration case.
• Final analytical paper (45%): A 2,000-2,500-word paper, excluding references, applying feminist and queer perspectives to a topic in transnational migration. This includes a proposal and preliminary bibliography (10%) and the final paper (35%).

Class Attributes

SoC Additional Distro