LFU:online

Apart from insights into theories of migrancy, refugeehood, life-writing, narrative, and transcultural communication, students will also gather very practical experience in all of these areas and gain a deeper understanding of refugees and their situation in Austria; they will learn to think of forced migration in new ways and acquire discursive strategies with which to critique and contest dominant and often prejudiced inscriptions of asylum seekers.At the same time they will learn about life writing as a special literary genre and practise writing creative non-fiction.

This course has as its thematic focus the experience of flight and the quest for asylum. Participants will read primary and secondary texts about forced migration and the narration of involuntary displacement. They will then be given the contact details of a person who has fled their home country and asked to meet them every week for conversations about various aspects of their lives. In class they will be taught interviewing skills and learn how to translate the encounters with their project partners into "creative non-fiction" so that by the end of the semester they can submit a number of texts on their collaboration with individual refugees. These texts will replace a conventional seminar paper and, with the permission of its author as well as the person interviewed, will be included in the collection ARENA (Archive of Refugee Encounter Narratives: https://www.uibk.ac.at/anglistik/arena/) to be housed in the Dokumentationsarchiv Migration Tirol (DAM). A public presentation of excerpts from the texts produced in the course of the semester is planned and the participation of all students in its organisation expected. 

readings and discussions, writing and interviewing assignments, organisation of and participation in a public event.

active participation in class discussions, written assignments, creative writing, public presentation

assessment criteria: depth, creativity, originality, authenticity, thoroughness of interviews and  further research 

Primary and secondary texts will be provided via OLAT.

MA: none

Teacher Training Programme 2001: Positive completion of first part of studies (1. Studienabschnitt).

 Willingness to help organise and participate in a public presentation of the work accomplished in the seminar is expected.

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.