What does it mean to return home? How does the journey of return raise questions about your relationship to your racial, gender, or national
identity? Can you go home again? This course argues that narratives of return attest to and reveal complex political, social, and psychological
processes of identity formation and relations to institutions of power. We’ll examine how narratives of return, whether literal or metaphorical,
challenge notions of a static homeland and the boundaries of national identity. Conditions of immigration and displacement vary widely, but
we’ll read, watch, and listen to stories from writers and artists of color who reflect on their own experiences of uprootedness. We’ll question how
the politics of bordering lay bare the persistent historical and political entanglements of race and displacement.