If you are a practitioner, student, researcher, journalist, policy makers interested in migrations, the ITHACA Massive Open Online Courseware offers you the chance to learn from the experience of an international group of experts in archival science, anthropology, sociology, and history.

Migrations and forced population displacements are crucial phenomena in the contemporary world. The mass movements of migrants and refugees dominate the political debate and agenda at a global level. Socially, they have redefined entire societies, opening up fractures and opportunities, and putting to test national codes of belonging. Migrant and refugee voices and narratives have often been undervalued by governments and international and local institutions. Collecting, preserving, and giving voice and value to migrant and refugee stories – as individuals, families, and communities – is the very first step to promoting politics of relief, empowerment, inclusion and participation.

This concept is at the base of ITHACA, that dedicated three main training sessions to these topics and expanded them by a MOOC, offering theories and methods of archival analysis and historical appraisal of narratives on and of migration, as well as approaches to interpret, study and narrate migration narratives in the present.

The course is divided into three different sections.

The first, “Archives Concepts and Models” is taught by three archivist of UNHCR; it starts from the meaning of “archive”, addressing how the sustainability of information and knowledge allows us to stand the test of time.

The second focused on “Methods of collecting and preserving migration narratives through the experience of potential migrants”. An anthropologist, a historian and a media studies expert from the Al Akhawayn University tell about their fieldwork experiences in Morocco and beyond. In this section, the results of two other European projects, BRIDGES and OPPORTUNITIES, are offered.

The third section is taught by three scholars from the Institute for History of the University of Leiden, and dedicated to “Concepts and methods for the transmission and critical analysis of migration memories”.

You can access the courseware both from the ITHACA website dedicated page and the EduOpen Platform.