Honors Courses on Mass Migrations and Human Rights

This fall USM scholars and members of Portland's refugee community will begin developing USM Honors courses that explore recent international crises and the subsequent migrations of people to southern Maine.

U.S. Representative Tom Allen announced in August that the USM Honors Program had been awarded a $25,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to fund the project.

Faculty from nine academic departments will work with faculty from other institutions and with members of the local refugee community to develop two interdisciplinary courses in the Honors Program. The first course will explore recent events in the Balkans and the ensuing migrations of refugees to the Portland region. A second course will explore post-colonial events in sub-Saharan Africa and the migrations of African refugees to local communities. The courses are scheduled to be offered in the 2001-2002 academic year.

"In this project," Jan Thompson, director of the Honors Program, said,"we will explore recent events in the Balkans and sub-Saharan Africa as a frame of reference for the study of human rights, forced migration and transnational exile. These courses will address difficult questions of human values. They will help us to better understand the experiences of refugees and immigrants as new residents in our community. We believe the project will also support other work at USM in international studies, cultural studies and community-based projects with immigrant and refugee populations."

The USM Honors Program, which was established in the fall of 1986, has a longstanding record of NEH support. In the spring of 1986 and again in 1987, the program received competitive NEH grants to fund course development. In 1989, the NEH cited the program as one of three exemplary new models in the nation for teaching interdisciplinary core curriculum requirements.

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