The first seminar of the course on January 22nd was dedicated to a basic premise of the course that migration is a phenomenon of all times and that insights in modern contexts of migration may be helpful to understand ancient contexts.
To this end, we watched the documentary The Other Side of Immigration, which ‘challenges audiences to think about the many political, economic, and social causes and effects of mass migration in Mexico’ – (see http://theothersideofimmigration.com/). The following discussion led us to the view that migration is not a one-off event but may be cyclical or recurrent; it may be thought of as a process. For more talking points, see http://www.roygermano.com/immigration_discussion_questions.pdf.
This was followed up by a brief discussion of a well-known migrant in Classical Antiquity, namely Demaratus of Corinth and a brief exploration of the Aristonothos Krater.
