Are diasporas extensions of ethnic communities, who live outside their original homelands, or are they cultural constructs developing in the age of globalization and transnationalism? How do diasporic identities develop? Are they socially constructed and transmitted through generations or individually negotiated? What role do various individuals, organizations and institutions have in diaspora formation? How do people develop a sense of belonging to diasporas? How are diasporic identities different from ethnic identities? These are some of the questions we will address throughout the class by reading variety of texts and studies on Jewish and Armenian diasporas, both historical and modern. We will also think of how the perceptions of Jewishness and Armenianness change and evolve under certain historical or social-political contexts, and which makers of identity—religion, language, shared history or other—become important at different historical periods and within different diasporic settlements. Among others, we will particularly discuss the experiences of the Jewish and Armenian diasporas in the United States. This course will help students develop skills in historically and sociologically informed comparative analysis of ethnic or diasporic collectivities.
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