Diasporas and Migrations
For the past decade, studies of diasporas and migrations have existed in creative tension with each other and with work on globalization and transnationalism. Rooted in scholarship on forced migrations, diaspora has been conceived both as a process—the movement of and connections among peoples from a common geographical or cultural space—and as a way of organizing and classifying knowledge. How have these conceptualizations challenged definitions of experience and theory stemming from studies of migration? What is gained and lost when we frame movements as diasporas or migrations? Are there disciplinary differences or cross-disciplinary tensions in the deployment of the two concepts? And how does each intersect with studies of transnationalism, globalization, and women and gender?
