INTD 497 Theorizing Refugees: Citizenship and Displacement in the Middle East Fall 2015

Transcription

1 INTD 497 Theorizing Refugees: Citizenship and Displacement in the Middle East Fall 2015 Class time: Wednesdays, 2:35-5:25pm Room: Education Building, 3700 McTavish St, room 434 Instructor: Professor Diana Allan Office hours: Wednesdays, 9:30 11:30, Leacock Building, Room Course description: How does anthropology study those defined as exceptions within the political order of citizenship? Refugees, migrants, asylum seekers, and illegal aliens challenge this order at its core. We engage anthropologists, political theorists, legal scholars and sociologists who explore the political implications of such others, as well as the theoretical and practical implications of the terms themselves. Readings trace the theoretical evolution of the refugee from state threat and abject other in need of containment and therapeutic care to agent of political change, ranging from studies of citizenship and exclusion, humanitarianism and the biopolitics of refugee management and control, to experience-near ethnographies of refugee life and forced migration. We examine how people experience displacement, confinement and exclusion; how home, community and belonging are (re)configured; and the lived experience of exile. While the geographic focus of the course will be the Middle East and North Africa, materials will be drawn from other areas as well. Learning Objectives By the end of this course, students should be able to: Understand how anthropology and related disciplines approach the study of displacement and forced migration Recognize and evaluate the ways refugee status, and the experience of belonging and exclusion shape societies and human subjects Critically analyze, from an interdisciplinary perspective, scholarly debates about forced migration, citizenship, belonging and exclusion in the Middle East and other contexts Develop and present persuasive oral and written analyses of the topics under discussion Conduct independent research and writing that explores the themes of the course further The teaching methods used to achieve these objectives include: Brief lectures to introduce key terms and theoretical debates Class discussions; Student presentations; Audiovisual materials; Guest lectures; Guided reading and independent research. ** ipods and cell phones are not allowed in class; use of laptops and ipads should be limited to accessing class texts and course-related materials only**

2 Texts There is no course reader for this class. All the texts for this course are available as e-books (with unlimited access), and the articles and additional readings will be accessible through the course website. For those of you like to hold texts in your hands, I have ordered the three books we will be reading during the second half of the semester, which are available at Paragraphe Books. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyyeh, The Ideal Refugees: Gender, Islam and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival (Syracuse University Press, 2014). Rogaia Abu Mustafa, Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan: Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2009). Diana Allan, Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile (Stanford University Press, 2013). Course Requirements Attendance and participation: Timely attendance, preparation, and active participation count towards the final grade and are expected of all class participants. Because the class is conducted as a seminar rather than a lecture series, students are expected to come to class having closely read all the assigned texts and prepared to speak about them (I will call on students if necessary). Identify striking passages that warrant deeper analysis, note questions that the texts raise, and come to class ready to engage in constructive debate. All students must note down at least three questions or comments for each set of readings and bring them to class. Leading Discussion: Each week three students will be responsible for leading and facilitating part of the discussion. Students should work together in advance of class to prepare an overview of the assigned readings, addressing the main themes and arguments of the texts. Presenters should identify the particular themes they wish to address in the seminar; develop creative strategies for facilitating discussion and stimulating debate (where relevant, drawing on case studies beyond assigned readings, audiovisual materials, etc.); and a clear timeline for the activities. The presentations should run for approximately 75 minutes and should include at least 30 minutes of class discussion and/or small group activities. All group facilitators will receive the same grade. A laptop and power point projector will be provided. If presenters wish students to review additional texts or sources, these need to be made available to students by Monday 5pm. Reflection papers: Over the course of the semester students are required to write five short reflection papers on the weekly readings. Students will be graded on the overall clarity of their writing; their critical engagement with the literature; and on the strength of their analytical skills. The reflection paper should be 1-2 pages double-spaced and are an opportunity to draw connections with previous readings and the themes of the course, pose questions, express frustration or pleasure, and hone analytical skills. Reflection papers should not simply summarize the argument, but should critically engage with it. For weeks where there are three or more assigned readings, students should treat a minimum of three; where relevant, students may also draw on additional sources. Papers must be submitted by Tuesday, 5pm. Final Paper and in-class presentation of research proposal: Each student will design, research, and write about a topic of their choice that engages the ideas of the course. Papers should not exceed 15 pages double spaced, 12 point font and should be not less than 10 pages. The paper must have a clear thesis, identify key terms, and draw on both empirical and theoretical materials from the course. Topics should involve independent research in related areas, and might focus on particular cases, debates, institutional actors or ethnographic studies in the field of forced 2

3 migration. For students wishing to conduct field research and interviews for the final paper, please consult me to discuss the IRB/ Human Subjects approval procedure. Students are required to submit a 2-3 page paper proposal in class on October 28, and to present their research topics to the class for peer review during the last month of classes. The proposal should include 1) a justification of how it relates to course themes; 2) an annotated bibliography of texts. The final paper is due Wednesday, December 2. Absence: Each student is permitted one unexcused absence. Additional unexcused absences will lower the class participation grade by 3 points. Excused absences require advance approval and a letter of explanation. Students will be responsible for all work missed. Grading and Assessment: 15% Participation in class 20% Short reflection papers 20% Group facilitation of seminar 5% Paper proposal and bibliography 5% Presentation of paper proposal for peer review 35% Final research paper Important dates 9 September Course begins 23 September No office hours or class 15 October McDonald Currie Lecture, pm. 28 October Proposal for research paper topic (due in class) 2 December Last class, final papers due Further information on writing guidelines and extra credit opportunities is available at the end of the syllabus. Please note this syllabus may be subject to change Class 1: Wednesday 9 September Introduction: Defining refugees and forced migration in the Middle East PART I FRAMINGS Class 2: Wednesday 16 September Boundaries of community: Citizenship and exclusion Required reading: Uday Mehta, Liberal Strategies of Exclusion. Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World, ed. Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler, (University of California Press, 1997). 3

4 Hannah Arendt, The Decline of the Nation-state and the Rights of Man. The Origins of Totalitarianism, (Meridian Books, [1951] 1966). Hannah Arendt, We Refugees. Altogether Elsewhere: Writers on Exile, ed. Marc Robinson, (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1996). Giorgio Agamben, We Refugees. Symposium 49 (2): Nicholas De Genova, Spectacles of Migrant Illegality : The scene of exclusion, the obscene inclusion. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(7): (2013). Optional reading: Aihwa Ong, Mutations in citizenship. Theory, Culture and Society 23, no. 2-3 (2006): Partha Chatterjee, Beyond the Nation, Or Within? Social Text 56 (1998): Saskia Sassen, Foundational Subjects for Political Membership: Today s Changed Relation to the National State. Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages, (Princeton University Press, 2006). Emma Haddad, The Refugee in International Society: Between Sovereigns (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Sari Hanafi, Forced Migration in the Middle East and North Africa. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). In-class screening: The Displaced (2014) NOTE: Wednesday 23 September: No office hours or class Class 3: Wednesday 30 September The national order of things: Anthropology and the study of people in and out of place Dawn Chatty, Dispossession and Displacement Within the Contemporary Middle East: An Overview of Theories and Concepts. Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Liisa Malkki. National Geographic: The rooting of peoples and the territorialization of national identity among scholars and refugees. Cultural Anthropology, vol 7, no 1: 24-44, (1992). Julie Peteet, Cartographic violence, displacement and refugee camps: Palestine and Iraq. Palestinian Refugees: Identity, Space and Place in the Levant, edited by Sari Hanafi and Are Knudsen (Routledge, 2011). Roger Zetter, More Labels, Fewer Refugees: Remaking the Refugee Label in an Era of Globalization. Journal of Refugee Studies 20(2) Ilana Feldman, Difficult Distinctions: Refugee Law, Humanitarian Practice, and Political Identification in Gaza. Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 22,1 (2007): Sophia Hoffmann, The Humanitarian Regime of Sovereignty: INGOs and Iraqi Migration to Syria. Refuge 28 (1): (2011). Optional reading: Daniel Warner, Repatriation and the Meaning of Return to Home: A Critique of Liberal Mathematics. Journal of Refugee Studies 1994, Vol.7 (2/3): Seteney Shami, The Social Implications of Population Displacement and Resettlement: An Overview with a Focus on the Arab Middle East, International Migration Review Vol. 27 (1): 4-4

5 33 (1993). Oliver Bakewell, Research Beyond the Categories: The importance of policy irrelevant Research into Forced Migration. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21 (4) 2008: Elizabeth Colson, Forced Migration and the Anthropological Response, Journal of Refugee Studies 16(1): 1 16 (2003). Dawn Chatty, Anthropology and Forced Migration. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). Ilana Feldman, The Challenge of Categories: UNRWA and the Definition of a Palestinian Refugee, Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 25 (3): (2012). Class 4: Wednesday 7 October The refugee regime : Camps, biopolitics and humanitarian intervention Jennifer Hyndman, Scripting Humanitarianism and Camps, compounds and other spaces. Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism (University of Minnesota Press, 2000). Julie Peteet, Chp 3 Aid and the Construction of the Refugee. Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps (University of Pennsylvania press, 2005). Randa Farah, Refugee Camps in Palestinian and Sahrawi National Liberation Movements: A Comparative Perspective. Journal of Palestine Studies 2009, 38(2): Nell Gabiam, When humanitarianism becomes development : the politics of international aid in Syria s Palestinian camps. American Anthropologist 114 (1): Didier Fassin, Humanitarianism and the politics of life. Public Culture 19 (3): Optional readings: Gil Loescher, UNHCR and Forced Migration. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). Michel Agier and Francoise Bouchet-Saulnier, Humanitarian Spaces: Spaces of Exception. In the Shadow of Just Wars : Violence, Politics and Humanitarian Action, edited by Fabrice Weissmann (Cornell University Press, 2004). Ilana Feldman, Looking for Humanitarian Purpose: Endurance and the Value of Lives in a Palestinian Refugee Camp. Public Culture 27:3 (2015). [In press - PDF available on course website]. Ilana Feldman, What is a camp? Legitimate refugee lives in spaces of long-term displacement. Geoforum (2014). [In press, PDF available on course website]. Barbara Harrell-Bond. Can Humanitarian Work with Refugees be Humane? Human Rights Quarterly, Peter Nyers, Rethinking Refugees: Beyond States of Emergency (Routledge, 2006). Adam Ramadan, Destroying Nahr el-bared: Sovereignty and Urbacide in the Space of Exception. Political Geography 28(3): D. Forsythe, UNHCR's Mandate: the Politics of Being Non-political. UNHCR New Issues in Refugee Research 33 (2001). See 5

6 Class 5: Wednesday 14 October Representing refugee experience L. Malkki, Speechless Emissaries: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and Dehistoricization. Siting Culture: The Shifting Anthropological Object, ed. K. F. Olwig and K. Hastrup (Routledge, 1997). Diana Allan, The Politics of Witness: Remembering and Forgetting 1948 in Shatila Camp. Nakba: Palestine, 1948 and the Claims of Memory, edited by Lila Abu-Lughod and Ahmad Sa di (Columbia University Press, 2007). P. Rajaram, Humanitarianism and Representations of the Refugee. Journal of Refugee Studies 15(3) V. Pupavac, Refugee Advocacy, Traumatic Representations and Political Disenchantment. Government and Opposition 43(2) B. Kampmark, Spying for Hitler and Working for Bin Laden : Comparative Australian Discourses on Refugees. Journal of Refugee Studies 19(1) Optional readings and additional resources: E. Valentine and John Chr. Knudsen, Introduction. Mistrusting Refugees, ed. Daniel et al (University of California Press, 1995). Catriona Mackenzie et al, Beyond Do No Harm : The Challenge of Constructing Ethical Relationships in Refugee Research. Journal of Refugee Studies 20, no.2 (2007). Nando Sigona, The Politics of Refugee Voices: Representations, Narratives, and Memories. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). Terrence Wright, The Media and Representations of Refugees and Other Forced Migrants. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). In-class screening: A World Not Ours (2012), dir. Mahdi Fleifel PART II CASE STUDIES Class 6: Wednesday 21 October The protracted displacement of Palestinians in Lebanon: Camps as spaces of belonging and exclusion Diana Allan, Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013). Intro, Chps 2, 3, 5, 6. Optional readings: Ilana Feldman, The Humanitarian Condition: Palestinian Refugees and the Politics of Living. Humanity (2012): James Milner, Protracted Refugee Situations. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). In class screening: Terrace of the Sea (2010), dir. Diana Allan. 6

7 Class 7: Wednesday 28 October Sudan: Living as Internally Displaced Persons in Khartoum (IDPs) Rogaia Abu Mustafa, Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan: Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2009). Selections. Walter Kalin, Internal Displacement. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). Optional readings and additional resources: Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyye, Gender and Forced Migration. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, ed. by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh et al (Oxford University Press, 2014). R. Cohen and F. Deng, Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement (1998). * Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement: *1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: *Paper topic and tentative bibliography for seminar paper due - Student research presentations I Class 8: Wednesday 4 November Included or excluded?: Palestinian citizens of Israel Dan Handelman, Contradictions between citizenship and nationality: Their consequences for ethnicity and inequality in Israel. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society7, 3 (1994): Shira Robinson, Citizenship as a Category of Exclusion. Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel s Settler State (Stanford University Press, 2013). Hassan Jabareen, The Future of Arab Citizenship in Israel: Jewish-Zionist Time in a Place with no Palestinian Memory. Challenging Ethnic Citizenship: German and Israeli Perspectives on Immigration, ed. Daniel Levy and Yfaat Weiss, (Berghahn Books, 2002). Silvia Pasquetti, Legal Emotions: An Ethnography of Distrust and Fear in the Arab Districts of an Israeli City. Law & Society, Vol. 47 (3) Rhoda Kanaaneh, Boys or Men? Duped or "made"? Palestinian soldiers in the Israeli military. American Ethnologist 32, 2 (2005): Optional: Oren Yiftachel, Ethnocracy and Its Discontents: Minorities, Protests, and the Israeli Polity. Critical Inquiry 26, 4 (2000): In-class screening: Slingshot Hip Hop (2008), dir. Jackie Salloum Class 9: Wednesday 11 November Gendering displacement in the Western Sahara and guest lecture - Dr Fiddian Qasmiyyeh Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyyeh, The Ideal Refugees: Gender, Islam and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival (Syracuse University Press, 2014). Selections. Abu-Lughod, L. (2002) Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others. American Anthropologist 104:

8 Optional readings: Deniz Kandiyoti, Introduction. Women, Islam and the State, ed. Kandiyoti (Temple University Press, 1991), Valentine Moghadam, Introduction and Overview. Gender and National Identity: Women and Politics in Muslim Societies (Zed Books, 1994), * Student research presentations II Class 10: Wednesday 18 November Urban refugees: The Iraqi case P. Marfleet, Iraq s Refugees: Exit from the State. International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies 1(3): (2007). Géraldine Chatelard and Tim Morris, Editorial Essay: Iraqi refugees, beyond the urban refugee paradigm, Refuge Vol. 28 (1): 3-14 (2011). Géraldine Chatelard, What visibility conceals: Re-embedding Refugee Migration from Iraq (2009). Chris Skopec et al, Anticipating the unexpected: Urban Programming in Jordan. Refugeecooperation.org (2010) Report. Susan MacDougall, Refugees from inside the system: Iraqi Divorcees in Jordan. Refuge Vol. 28 (1): (2011). Elisa Pascucci, Migration, Identity, and Social Mobility among Iraqis in Egypt. Refuge Vol. 28 (1): (2011). Optional: Joseph Sassoon, The Iraqi Refugees: The New Crisis in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2009). Julie Peteet, Unsettling the Categories of Displacement. Middle East Report 244 (Fall): 2-9, M. Shoeb, H. Weinstein, and J. Halpern, Living in Religious Time and Space: Iraqi Refugees in Dearborn, Michigan. Journal of Refugee Studies 20, 3: (2007). Hayder Al-Mohammad, A Kidnapping in Basra: The Struggles and Precariousness of Life in Post-Invasion Iraq. Cultural Anthropology 27, 4 (2012): In-class screening: From Riches to Rags (2015). *Student research presentations III Class 11: Wednesday 25 November The Problem of Europe Miriam Ticktin, Where Ethics and Politics Meet: The Violence of Humanitarianism in France. American Ethnologist 33, 1 (2006): Miriam Ticktin, Sexual Violence as the Language of Border Control: Where French Feminist and Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Meet. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 33, 41 (2008): Matthew Gibney, A Thousand Little Guantanamos : Western States and Measures to Prevent the Arrival of Refugees. Displacement, Asylum, Migration, edited by K. Tunstall (Oxford University Press, 2006). 8

9 Didier Fassin, Compassion and Repression: The Moral Economy of Immigration Policies in France. Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 20, Issue 3, pp G. Gariella and M. Tazzoli, Arab Spring Making Space: Territoriality and Moral Geographies for Asylum Seekers in Italy. Environment and Planning D: Space & Society 31 (6) Optional: Peter van der Veer, Pim Fortuyn, Theo van Gogh, and the Politics of Tolerance in the Netherlands. Public Culture 18, 1 (2006): Miriam Ticktin, Casulties of Care: Immigration and the Politics of Humanitarianism in France (Univeristy of California Press, 2011). Joan Scott, Symptomatic Politics: The Banning of Islamic Head Scarves in French Public Schools. French Politics, Cultural, and Society 23, 3 (2005): Etienne Balibar, Outline of a Topography of Cruelty: Citizenship and Civility in the Era of Global Violence. We, The People of Europe? Reflections on transnational citizenship (Princeton University Press, 2004) Stephan Scheel and Vicki Squire, Forced Migrants as Illegal Migrants. The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, edited by Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Loescher, Long and Sigona (Oxford University Press, 2014). *Student research presentations IV Class 12: Wednesday 2 December Refugees and migrants as agents of political change T. Hayter, Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls, Second Edition (Pluto Press, 2004) pp. ix-xxvi and 1-7. Bridget Anderson, Nandita Sharma and Cythia Wright, We are all Foreigners : No Borders as a practical political project. Citizenship, Migrant Activism and the Politics of Movement, edited by Peter Nyers and Kim Rygiel (Routledge, 2012). McNevin, Acts of Contestation: The Sans-Papiers of France. Contesting Citizenship (2011). William Walters, Acts of Demonstration: Mapping the Territory of (Non-) Citizenship. Acts of Citizenship, edited by E. Isin, and G. M. Nielsen (2008). Ruba Salih, From Bare Life to Political Agents. Refugee Survey Quarterly 32 (2): (2013). Optional readings: Peter Nyers, Evasive Maneuvers: Refugee Warriors Recast the Political ; Conclusion, Rethinking Refugees: Dangers and Prospects. Rethinking Refugees (Taylor and Francis, 2006). Engin Isin, Citizenship in Flux: The figure of the Activist Citizen. Subjectivity 29 (1): (2009). Writing Guidelines Format: Hard copies of written work should be submitted to me during class. All written work should conform to these guidelines: one inch margins, double spacing, and 12-point, Times New Roman font. Include your name, date and title on the first page of your paper, and number and staple your pages. Proofread your drafts carefully before turning them in. Citation: Follow the standard format for citation set out in the American Anthropological Association style guide: 9

10 Late submission: Late work will not be accepted unless arrangements have been made in advance. Academic Integrity: The work you submit for this course must be written by you; all sources must be appropriately acknowledged. Please review McGill s Academic Integrity Code: for more information. Language: As per university policy, written assignments may be submitted in French or English. Special Needs: Requests for academic accommodations for students with disabilities must be made during the first three weeks of the semester, so that arrangements can be made. For more information, please contact the McGill Student Disability Services. McDonald Currie Lecture: Extra credit opportunity The Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID) annual McDonald Currie Lecture will take place on October 15, 2015, from 5:00-6:30 PM. The location, speaker and topic will be confirmed shortly. Attending students will receive an extra 1% that will count toward their participation grade. At the lecture, there will be a sign up sheet. Before the lecture begins, students should sign up, providing their name, student ID number, and provide a signature. Attendance for the full lecture is necessary to receive the extra credit. Major legal agreements and standards: *1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees: *1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. ee_convention.pdf. *1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees: *Canadian Council for Refugees (2008) State of Refugees: An introduction to refugee and immigration issues in Canada. See Other useful resources: Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement: Canadian Council for Refugees: Forced Migration On-line: Forced Migration Review: Human Rights Watch: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada: International Committee for the Red Cross: International Crisis Group: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre: MSF Virtual Refugee Camp: Norwegian Refugee Council: Refugees International: Relief Web: UNHCR: University of Oxford Refugee Studies Centre: Women s Refugee Commission: