Migrations, Diasporic Communities and Transnational Identities

One of the most fundamental transformations of the world has been the movement of peoples across regions and continents, whether voluntarily, forced by political turmoil or economic hardship, or as slaves, serfs and refugees. From the legacies of pre-modern diasporas to the settlement, under colonial rule, of vast territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia, human migration across state and socio-cultural boundaries has been a major historical feature. Such movement has accompanied and influenced efforts to define exclusionary nation-states with fixed territorial and symbolic borders -- a development that has occupied the attention of both dominant and dominated peoples across the globe, from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Revolutionary transformations in the means of transportation of people, capital and goods; the development of instantaneous forms of communication and exchange of cultural commodities; and the international competition and global integration fostered since the Second World War have brought new migration patterns and new challenges to existing ethnic and national identities. Indeed, even the concept of "diaspora" itself, traditionally a referent to the forcible scattering of Jews since 79CE, has undergone elastic redefinitions associated precisely with new massive transfers of peoples across the globe. In this sense, few other topics would lend themselves better to highlight the importance of incorporating global perspectives into our curricular offerings and co-curricular activities and to foster more sustained academic links between the College and the Hartford metropolitan region. After all, the College sits in a city deeply marked by successive migration waves since the seventeenth century, and more recently an area where established definitions of U.S. national identity and citizenship rights have been seriously challenged.

This project features a mix of educational experiences for students and faculty similar to the 1997-98 "Decolonization Series." That series included, for example, a cluster of introductory and advanced level courses, including First-Year Seminars and upper-level reading or research seminars; a faculty lecture series; a film series; a College-wide independent, half-credit study course; an on-line discussion forum; special guest speakers; and a scholarly conference. However, we have added components not present in last year's series; for instance, artistic performances and exhibits, and activities more attuned to issues of science and technology.