Migrant Personhood: Against Tales of Witches, Aliens, Beasts, and Pests
AMST 321
Spring 2025
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ANTH 321, STS 336 |
The contagious animal, the irrational woman, the foreign threat, the mentally incompetent -- this course follows the circulation of these portrayals of immigrants beyond rhetorical injury. Drawing on what Colin Dayan calls "negative personhood," we will focus on the symbolic, narrative, and representational violence of immigration law. We start with readings and films that look into the history of the idea of the "reasonable man" in immigration policy, the truth-making effect of courtroom hearings, and the figures of speech that give shape to stories about what it is to be an American in the eyes of the law. We then explore forms of alternative representation that elude legal containment and instead seek cultural membership and political participation. We finish the course by examining poetic testimonials, psychotic narrations, dirty protests, escapes from ideological frames of address, collective autobiography, imaginative refusals, and radical Latinx utopias. We will draw from interdisciplinary material in anthropology, literary theory, performance studies, philosophy, legal theory, and feminist studies, among other fields. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
: Readings may include works by Talal Asad, Colin Dayan, Patricia Williams, Susan Schweik, Rosalind Morris, Sara Uribe, Monica Huerta, Michelle Castaneda, Juana Maria Rodriguez, Sylvia Molloy, Beatriz Sarlo, Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, Sonia Guinansaca, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Lourdes Ortiz, Silvia Federici, The Latina Feminist Group, and Imaginative Mobilities. Films: Films: Bugs and Beasts Before the Law by Bambitchell (2019), Saint Omer by Alice Diop (2022), Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley (2012), Jogo de cena (Play) by, Eduardo Coutinho (2007), Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall) by Justine Triet (2023)
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Examinations and Assignments:
: Reading/Film responses and a final paper |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Ramia,Valentina Times: .M.W... 10:50AM-12:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 2 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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