Program Description
Migration is a major feature of human history and one of the most significant forces shaping the world today. The Migration Studies minor is a university-wide, interdisciplinary undergraduate minor that prepares students to understand the historical and contemporary contexts and factors that drive international migration and shape migrant experiences around the globe.
This minor draws on the rich course offerings found across the humanities and social sciences at Cornell. The courses offered are designed to provide students with the analytical framework necessary to understand the conditions that shape migrants' decisions to migrate and the social, cultural, and political processes that shape their departure, arrival, and integration into new host societies. The Migration Studies minor is designed to draw students outside of their major fields and to extend their knowledge beyond a single country.
There are more than 30 faculty associates of the minor, representing departments from six colleges on Cornell's campus. The diversity of their research and teaching interests reflects the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of this course of study. To sustain populations in motion and thrive in a world on the move, students of all disciplines can learn about and engage with new approaches.
Enrollment
To enroll in the Migration Studies Minor, complete and submit the Declaration of Intent form. This may be done as soon as the sophomore year or no later than the end of the sixth semester in order to qualify. There is no GPA requirement for admission to the minor, but students must be in good academic standing.
Minor Requirements
The minor is earned upon completion of five courses with a minimum of 15 credits.
Introductory Course
Course List Code | Title | Hours |
ILRGL 3810 | Migration: Histories, Controversies, and Perspectives | 3 |
Elective Courses
As an interdisciplinary minor, the Migration Studies minor admits over fifty elective courses across six colleges at Cornell. The list is representative, but by no means exhaustive. Other elective courses can be taken, but must be approved by the faculty coordinator.
Course List Code | Title | Hours |
| |
AAS 2100 | South Asian Diaspora | 3 |
AMST 1104 | Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Social Constructs, Real World Consequences | 3 |
AMST 1802 | Introduction to Latinos in U.S. History | 3 |
AMST 2253 | Diasporas from the Spanish Caribbean | 4 |
AMST 4720 | | |
AMST 4851 | Refugees | 4 |
ANTHR 2428 | | |
ANTHR 3703 | Asians in the Americas: A Comparative Perspective | 3 |
ANTHR 3762 | | |
ANTHR 4466 | Citizenship, Borders, and Belonging | 3 |
ARCH 2802 | History of Architecture II | 3 |
ASIAN 3329 | Literature of Leaving China | 3 |
ASIAN 3368 | Imagining India, Home and Diaspora | 4 |
ASIAN 4443 | Work and Labor in China | 4 |
ASRC 1976 | Recreating the Caribbean: Migration and Identity in Contemporary Caribbean History | 3 |
ASRC 2212 | Caribbean Worlds | 3 |
ASRC 3302 | | |
ASRC 3434 | Underground Railroad Seminar | 3 |
BIOEE 1560 | Introductory Oceanography with Laboratory | 4 |
BIOEE 3610 | Advanced Ecology | 4 |
COML 3336 | Border Environments | 3 |
COML 4334 | | 3 |
COML 4452 | Trauma Across Borders | 3 |
COML 6960 | | |
COMM 3250 | Vamos Pa'l Norte: U.S. Migration and Communication | 3 |
CRP 1101 | | |
DSOC 4300 | | |
GDEV 2010 | Population and Social Change | 3 |
GDEV 3040 | | 3 |
GDEV 3060 | Farmworkers: Contemporary Issues and Their Implications | 1 |
GDEV 3400 | Agriculture, Food, Sustainability and Social Justice | 3 |
GDEV 4940 | Special Topics in Global Development | 1-3 |
GDEV 6110 | | |
ECON 3480 | Race and the American Labor Market in Historical Perspective | 3 |
ECON 4350 | | 3 |
ECON 7430 | Seminar in Labor Economics II | 3 |
FGSS 3400 | Social Justice: Special Topics | 4 |
FREN 3400 | French Identities: 21st Century Culture and Society in France | 3 |
GERST 3581 | Imagining Migration in Film and Literature | 4 |
GERST 4002 | Changing Worlds: Migration, Minorities, and German Literature | 3 |
GOVT 2152 | (Im)migration and (Im)migrants: Then and Now | 3 |
GOVT 2274 | Global Studies Gateway | 3 |
GOVT 2897 | WIM: Human Rights at War | 4 |
GOVT 4032 | | |
HIST 1710 | The Jewish Atlantic: 1492-Present | 3 |
HIST 1800 | Immigration in U.S. History | 4 |
HIST 1802 | Introduction to Latinos in U.S. History | 3 |
HIST 1820 | U.S. Borders, North and South | 3 |
HIST 1970 | Pirates, Slaves, and Revolutionaries: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to Louverture | 4 |
HIST 1975 | Caribbean Migrations I: Caribbean Arrivals | 4 |
HIST 1985 | American History from 1500 to 1800 | 3 |
HIST 2010 | Atlantic Travelers | 4 |
HIST 2091 | A History of Human Trafficking in the Atlantic World, ca. 1400-1800 | 4 |
HIST 2251 | U.S. Immigration Narratives | 4 |
HIST 2392 | Where Fire Meets Ice: Histories of the U.S.-Canada Border Across Four Centuries | 3 |
HIST 2641 | Race and Modern US History | 3 |
HIST 2750 | History of Modern India | 4 |
HIST 3960 | Transnational Local: Southeast Asian History from the Eighteenth Century | 4 |
HIST 4252 | Migration and the Peopling of America: A Perennial Debate | 4 |
HIST 4690 | Borders, Frontiers, and Walls in Global History | 3 |
HIST 4922 | | |
HIST 4252 | Migration and the Peopling of America: A Perennial Debate | 4 |
HIST 4922 | | |
HIST 6052 | | |
HIST 6132 | Mobility, Circulation, Migration, Diaspora: Global Connections | 4 |
ILRGL 2060 | | 3 |
ILRGL 2070 | | 3 |
ILRGL 2080 | | 3 |
ILRGL 2350 | Work, Labor, and Capital in the Global Economy | 3 |
ILRGL 3020 | Strangers and Citizens: Immigration and Labor in U.S. History | 3 |
ILRGL 3035 | | 1-4 |
ILRGL 3810 | Migration: Histories, Controversies, and Perspectives | 3 |
ILRGL 4325 | The European Social Model | 3 |
ILRGL 4367 | Migration and Mobility: Theories and Lived Realities | 3 |
ILRIC 4357 | | |
ILRIC 4372 | | |
ILRIC 4395 | | |
ILRLR 2060 | | |
ILRLR 2080 | | |
ILRLR 2810 | | |
ILRLR 3020 | | |
ILRLR 3035 | | |
ILRLR 3065 | | |
ILRLE 7460 | Seminar in Labor Economics II | 2-4 |
JWST 2630 | Brazil to Brooklyn: Jewish Cultures of the Americas | 4 |
JWST 4533 | The Lower East Side: Jews and the Immigrant City | 3 |
LAW 6509 | Immigration Federalism | 3 |
LAW 7311 | Immigration and Refugee Law | 2 |
LAW 7801 | Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic | 4 |
LEGAL 5114 | Business Immigration Law | 1.5 |
LSP 4312 | | 3 |
NES 3655 | Minorities of the Middle East | 3 |
NES 4584 | | 3 |
NTRES 1101 | Understanding Environment and Sustainability | 3 |
NTRES 3020 | Earth Projects | 3 |
NTRES 3100 | Applied Population Ecology | 3 |
NTRES 3150 | Introduction to Conservation Bioacoustics | 3 |
NTRES 3220 | Global Biodiversity | 3 |
NTRES 3311 | Environmental Governance | 3 |
NTRES 3330 | Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Place-Based Ecological Knowledge | 3 |
PUBPOL 2030 | Population and Public Policy | 1-5 |
PUBPOL 3041 | U.S. Immigration Law and Policy | 3 |
PUBPOL 3050 | Refugee Pathways and Resettlement Policy | 4 |
PMA 3215 | Performance and Immigration:Staging the Migrant, Alien, and Refugee in and outside the US | 3 |
ROMS 4750 | | 4 |
SOC 2650 | | |
SOC 3400 | Labor and Migration in Asian America | 4 |
SOC 3570 | | 4 |
SPAN 3580 | | 4 |
SPAN 4670 | | 4 |
STS 4301 | | |
VTPEH 6101 | Public Health Foundations I | 2 |
VTPEH 6103 | Public Health Policy | 3 |
VTPEH 6104 | Epidemiology in Practice | 3 |
VTPEH 6111 | Infectious Disease and Health | 3 |
VTPEH 6114 | Applied Epidemiology: Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Response | 3 |
VTPEH 6141 | Planetary Health | 3 |
Migration-related Events
Students must attend at least five migration-related events on campus. Event attendance must be registered prior to the end of the semester in which the event takes place.
Extra Curricular Experience
Students are also encouraged to engage beyond the classroom through a field experience, community-based practicum, or other engaged component, to intern, work, volunteer, research, or study abroad in situations that involve significant interaction with migrant populations. Students should check with their college for available opportunities.