SILC partners in new Immigration Lab for fall 2018 semester

The School of International Letters and Cultures is part of a new class being offered in the fall 2018 semester at Arizona State University called the Immigration Lab, which will look at such questions as the purpose of boundaries, whether labels shape the debate and how migration defines one's identity.

Christiane Reves, a SILC instructor teaching German and a co-instructor in the Immigration Lab, explained the importance behind the course.

“The goal is to give the students space to reflect on and develop their own research questions that would have an impact on how they would like to shape the future,” she said.

“This course will seek ways to respond to these difficult, transdisciplinary questions on migration and movement. Together, students and faculty will engage with current and historical immigration and refugee movement at the local, national and global level,” Reves said.

Though Reves is only teaching in the first semester of the course, she stated how her expertise in German culture relate to this humanities course in immigration.

“As German and American identities are subject to negotiation, there is a powerful push in both countries to strengthen policies to identify, streamline and administer migrants as well as deport illegal immigrants. Debates about policies are also accompanied by scrutiny of media representations of migration,” she said.

Most notably, the program is also partnering with students and faculty from the University of Leipzig in Germany. Reves said that this will enable students to exchange ideas and work on projects with live sessions and videos.

“Through engaging in research exercises that probe, interrogate, explore and design collaborative group projects, the course will share their outcomes and the course experience beyond the classroom,” Reves said.  

The best part perhaps is that it is not lecture-based and has a small class size in order to receive individualized attention. Only 28 students will be enrolled into the class, which consists primarily of discussions, group work and projects.

Students can apply this course to several different credit options including SILC, humanities, history, women’s studies or anthropology.

The program* will be offered on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and is a Humanities Lab that aims to incorporate interdisciplinary faculty working with students from a variety of academic and cultural backgrounds. The course will run for two semesters, and students have the option of joining either one or both sessions of the lab.

Seats are still open; sign up for the Immigration Lab.

*Note: The Immigration Lab is now also being offered for graduate credit under HUL 594.