Vol. 24., No. 11	December 23, 1998

Barnard College Is on the Leading Edge of New Academic Field: Human Migration

By Hannah Fairfield

Barnard is on the leading edge of a new field in academia-the study of human migration. The movement of people from one part of the world to another and the social issues surrounding migration have emerged as the newest academic branch of Barnard.

"A strong program in migration studies is a natural for a college located in one of the world's great centers of migration: New York City," said Barnard President Judith R. Shapiro. "This is an ideal place for Barnard faculty and students to do research on 'transnationalism,' that is, on how groups of people live in more than one place, moving back and forth between their countries of origin and the countries to which they have migrated. In the years ahead, our developing program in migration studies will provide myriad field work opportunities throughout the city."

Testimony to the college's commitment to migration studies are Barnard's appointment of Caryl Phillips to the Henry R. Luce Professor of Migration and Social Order and the establishment of the Forum on Migration.

Phillips, whose novels, plays and screenplays explore migrational themes such as colonialism, racism, rootlessness and social change, joined Barnard's Department of English in September of this year. He leads the interdisciplinary programming efforts on diasporas and the social consequences of migration, issues which combine research from many traditional disciplines, such as anthropology, history, literature, religious studies, sociology and psychology.

"The 20th century has been a century of the movement of people, which has been facilitated by deteriorating conditions in people's homeland as well as modern ease of transportation," said Phillips, who was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, raised in Leeds, England and has taught in Sweden, India, Ghana and Singapore. "My interest is in how colonialism and migration affect writing, literature and culture."

On Dec. 3, Gay Talese, whose award-winning nonfiction books and essays have earned him literary prestige, delivered "Italian-American Immigration to the United States: A Transferral of Old World Pessimism and Village Thinking in the American Mainstream" as the third lecture in the forum.

Forum on Migration spring events taking place at Barnard: Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. in Brooks Living Room, Peter Carey presents a reading titled, "What Have We Done to You That You Should Bear Us Such Enmity," from his novel The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith and April 22 at 7 p.m. in Minor Latham Playhouse, "Theatre and Democracy," a lecture by John McGrath.