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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.

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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.

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.

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.

ENGL 161 The Making of America: Literature to 1865 4
ENGL 179 Human Rights and Global Literature 4
HIST 213 Race and Ethnicity in U.S. History 4
HIST 214 African Diaspora 4
HIST 217 Caribbean History 4
HIST 240 The Atlantic World 1500-1800 4
FREN 265 Francophone Short Stories 4
FREN 316 Outside France 4
POLS 215 The Politics of Exclusion 4
SOCI 330 Transnational Studies 4
WGST 210 Black Women, Gender, and Feminism(s) 4

So you know that Simmons is a great place to be, you've learned about our programs, maybe even come for a visit...now you're ready to apply! Let's get started.

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Our Faculty

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Marda Messay

  • Associate Professor and PLAN Language Requirement Coordinator