The student is familiar with various approaches to human mobility with a focus on forced displacement. In addition to actively participating in lectures, the student is capable to practice analytical skills in an individual project that is presented and discussed in the class.

This module examines intersectional approaches to human mobility in peace and conflict research. Violent conflicts, ethnic, religious and gender-based discrimination and human rights abuses produce forced displacement. In this course, we will explore the global phenomenon of human mobility in a two-fold manner. We will start by introducing multiple perspectives and actors together with key theoretical and methodological debates. The course then proceeds by situating these debates in a local context. This will be done by engaging the students with migrants and refugees living in the Tampere region.

The course structure will give the students a possibility to connect large-scale phenomena to their local manifestations and implications. The course seeks to facilitate understanding on how theories and abstract concepts shape, direct and resonate with people’s self-conceptions, how conflicts gain transnational dimensions and how forced migration enters into different people’s lives in multiple ways. What kind of connections are formed between peaceful societies and conflict zones through human mobility?

The course work will be preceded by a preliminary task in which students will reflect on their personal connection on the phenomenon of human mobility. Students have to return the assignment before the first lecture. The course consists of a limited number of lectures, a debriefing seminar and a practical project conducted outside the classroom. The students will carry out these practical projects in groups with civil society organizations in the supervision of the teachers. The practical partners and possible working methods have been agreed by the teachers before the course. The results of the student projects will be presented in the final seminar (23rd February 2015). The course will be concluded by writing an individual essay (3-5 pages) that provides a reflection on the working methods and the relation of the practical project to the course topic more generally.

Max. 25 students. Students will be accepted to the course in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research

2. degree students of the other Global Society programmes (MDP in Global and Transnational Studies, MDP in Quantitative Social Research, MDP in Comparative Social Policy and Welfare)

3. other degree students of UTA

4. exchange students (Master's level exchange students will be given priority)