Contemporary social relations increasingly transcend national borders as people migrate in response to war, repression, climate change, economic opportunities, or intimate partnerships. This seminar examines how people sustain social, familial, and intimate relationships across national borders, focusing on the role of digital technologies, infrastructures, routines, and affective labor that maintain or disrupt long‑distance connections. Using socio‑anthropological perspectives on transnationalism and care, students explore how kinship and support systems adapt when lived across distance.
The course offers both theoretical foundations and hands‑on experience studying transnational relations through guest lectures, readings and discussions. Regionally, the guest lectures mainly cover the situation of Ukrainian migrants before and since full-scale invasion. Additional inputs address the situation of Romanian and Afghan Migrants in Switzerland and Transnational Belarusian Families.
The course offers both theoretical foundations and hands‑on experience studying transnational relations through guest lectures, readings and discussions. Regionally, the guest lectures mainly cover the situation of Ukrainian migrants before and since full-scale invasion. Additional inputs address the situation of Romanian and Afghan Migrants in Switzerland and Transnational Belarusian Families.
- Instructors: Madlen Kobi, Oksana Ovsiiuk