Dept Sem:Diasporas Politics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar will explore the evolution of Diaspora politics from Hellenic and Roman time to our days. Why diasporas are such an important feature of the world system and how they are playing a role in security, economics, culture and political alliances. To what extant diasporas are complicating international politics and generating conflicts or are they playing a role as harbingers of peace? What are the differences between diasporas in the 19th century to those in the 21st? Are forces of globalization above all modes of transportation and communication truly effecting identity and the politics of those residing outside their ancestral lands? What is the role of theology and religion for diasporas? How liberal states of migrants reshaped diaspora politics, and what model us America providing? How diasporas are different from transnationals, and what are the differences between the "near abroad" and far-removed diasporas. The seminar will cover large materials in pol. Science and IR as well as in nationalism and the sociology of identity and migration. Students will be required to read regularly to class, participate actively, present short papers and selected a research topic which will be the basis for their seminar paper.