Teaching | Student Work

Immigration and Film

A 200 level course that examines cinematic representations of global migration.  This course looks at the cultural and political relationship between cinema and empire, the function of film and video in relation to issues of international migration, identity, and memory, as well as the position of cinema in the debate between assimilation and multiculturalism. Readings and lectures are interdisciplinary, drawing on film theory about the cinematic gaze, representations of ethnic and racial others, spectatorship, post-colonialism, and the cultural and historical origins of global migration over the past century.

My 2015 online Immigration and Film students made short 1-3 minute video presentations for their midterm evaluations. The assignment required that students explain a key concept from the class readings, its implications, and provide examples from films watched in class to demonstrate the concept.