SPAN 224: MIGRATION & BORDERS

University of California, Santa Barbara

This graduate seminar examines migration as a structuring force of cultural production at the U.S.–Mexico border. Approaching the border as an aesthet ic, political, and epistemological regime, the course analyzes how literatu re, visual art, film, performance, sound, and digital practices emerge from and intervene in systems of mobility, surveillance, control, and displacem ent. Drawing on critical migration studies, border theory, decolonial thoug ht, political philosophy, and aesthetic theory, the seminar treats cultural production not just as representation but as a site of theoretical knowled ge. While centered on the U.S.–Mexico border, the course situates this regi on within broader global debates on migration and sovereignty.