This pathway is no longer accepting new students. For more information, please contact Dean Friedman, eofri@conncoll.edu.

Explore the diversity of movements of people and the mechanisms that prevent people from moving.

Why do people move? Who gets to move and who is prevented from doing so? What are the cultural, political and economic implications of people on the move? This Pathway explores different types of migrations: voluntary or forced migrations (migrants, displaced persons, refugees, stateless people).

This Pathway will bring together critical theoretical perspectives and case studies from the social sciences, humanities, arts and sciences. We will look at how these perspectives contribute to our understanding of global migrations and personal migration experiences. We will also examine the artistic and literary productions of those on the move and those who are already members of established migrant communities or diasporas.

While students construct their own animating questions, some possible examples include:

• Could a borderless world exist?
• How do migrations and racism intersect?
• Are cities becoming the new refugee camps?
• Do natural disasters trigger migrations and displacements?
• Is world history a story of human migrations?
• Is there such a genre as migrant literature?
• Where do art and migration meet? 

Thematic Inquiry

 The Thematic Inquiry course will introduce theories of migration, case studies, film screenings and discussions, and online artistic debates. The course will be taught by the Pathway coordinator and will include numerous guest lectures by core Pathway faculty, other Connecticut College faculty and guest experts.

Senior Reflection

The Senior Reflection will be a one-credit seminar, in which students will use an e-portfolio to reflect on their work in the Pathway and to prepare for the All-College Symposium. Questions to be addressed by the students include:

• How did my animating question inform my curricular itinerary, my Global/Local Engagement experience?
• Did my Pathway experience turn out the way I anticipated? How was it different? How did I become a more global citizen?
• How did the Pathway intersect with my major?
• How did the Curricular Itinerary help me in answering my animating question?