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Migration Studies

The Colleges of the Fenway shared minor in Migration Studies addresses an urgent need to prepare undergraduate students for professional and civic lives in a world increasingly marked by diversity.

Students sitting in class

The Migration Studies minor enhances student understandings of migration, emigration, and immigration through strong scholarly foundations, interdisciplinary case studies, and engagement with the Boston community. Students will grapple with important questions about diversity and what it means to live in a “country of immigrants,” while enhancing their global awareness.

Students planning careers in business, education, social work, health care, the arts, policy and government, law, nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofit administration likely will come from, work with, and/or serve immigrant communities. By adding an interdisciplinary repertoire of courses specifically addressing immigration to their undergraduate careers, students will be well positioned to succeed in these fields and to bring a comprehensive understanding of migration and immigration to their professional and civic lives.

Migration Studies minors will be required to take:

One Required Course:

COF Introduction to Migration Studies: [Offered annually in Spring, rotating instructors, rotating campuses] All students must take “Introduction to Migration Studies,” an introductory-level course (1000-level at Emmanuel, 100-level at Simmons, etc.) familiarizing students with the major issues, methods, and frameworks of migration and immigration studies.

Three electives from the list of approved classes:

Electives are subject to the following requirements:

  • At least one course must be taken away from the student’s home institution within the COF.
  • Students must take at least one advanced seminar (3000-level at Emmanuel, 300-level at Simmons, etc.), selected from the list of approved courses.
  • Students must take one elective not in her/their declared major’s discipline.

LTWR161 The Making of America: Literature to 1865 4
LTWR179 Human Rights and Global Literature 4
HIST213 Race and Ethnicity in U.S. History 4
HIST214 African Diaspora 4
HIST217 Caribbean History 4
HIST240 The Atlantic World 1500-1800 4
FREN265 Francophone Short Stories 4
FREN316 Outside France: Perspectives from the French Speaking World 4
POLS215 The Politics of Exclusion 4
SOCI330 Transnational Studies 4
WGST210 Black Women, Gender, and Feminism(s) 4

One Required Experiential Learning Component:

We are very much interested in connecting students to the wider Boston community, and all students are required to engage in experiential learning. This could take the shape of a service-learning class (eg; SOC101) or a supervised internship (eg; HU370), and will be worked out in consultation with the student’s Migration Studies home-campus advisor according to guidelines developed by the Migration Studies faculty. Students may “double dip” experiential learning courses taken towards their majors if the service/internship entails significant work with an immigrant community or with an organization primarily focused on issues related to migration, immigration, or immigrant communities.

Our Faculty

Photo of Patrick Sylvain

Patrick Sylvain

Assistant Professor

Abel Djassi Amado photo

Abel Djassi Amado

Associate Professor

Jyoti Puri photograph

Jyoti Puri

Professor and Hazel Dick Leonard Chair