Dr. Stephen Porter

Explores the historical roots of contemporary international refugee crises global migration, and the role played by American people, institutions, politics, and culture in these affairs.

Issues raised include international causes of refugee crises and global migrations, differences between “voluntary” immigrants and “involuntary” refugees, overlapping domestic and international dimensions of refugee and immigration politics and policies, American treatment of refugees and other immigrants, the ways that newcomers from abroad have engaged with and adjusted to their new America homeland, and the relationships between humanitarian responsibility to the world’s vulnerable and uprooted people and American national interest.

Most of the course examines phenomena during the past century and a half.