Research Creation: Historical and Artistic Responses to 1945 and the Post-War Migration Regime

This cross-campus class, taught in collaboration with Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia) and University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) explores the way research-based art-making generates new kinds of knowledge about migration, displacement, and exile. This semester we focus on 1945, the end of the Second World War 80 years ago, and its effects on and consequences for migration and movement globally. In the “Research” part of the class we will gain an overview of the relevant global historical events and the concept of the “migration regime” before delving into primary sources from three different regions. These include legal documents, pictures, historical film footage, and letters. Students then develop a topic for their individual projects on 1945 from a region of their choice, and research the original historical sources that they want to work with. In the “Creation” part of the class, students will translate their research into works of art – preferably zines, poems, collages, or other combinations of text and images that can be printed. In three shared online sessions with the Bogotá and the Johannesburg groups we will learn about our partner classes’ responses to post-1945 migration and the arts, and discuss individual student projects with a global perspective. Projects from all three campuses will be presented in public events in Berlin, Bogotá and Johannesburg, and on the OSUN Research Creation website. Our closing event at BCB will be a mixed faculty-student-artist conference on the significance of 1945 today that combines historical and artistic approaches.

This course counts toward the Human Rights certificate.

American University in Bulgaria offers this course under the name "Cultural Studies Seminar: Borders, movements and Cultural Studies".
University of the Witwatersrand offers this course under the name "Research-Creation: Migration and the Arts".