On the Pedagogical Value of Not Going There: Mobility, Fossil Fuel Consumption, and the Production of Refugees

Abstract

AbstractHerein, I consider the work that long-distance travel courses do to contribute to some of the very factors that underlie “forced” and illegalized human movement across international divide. I do so by examining the ties between climate change, fossil fuel consumption, and associated inequities. I argue that the very exercise of mobility that travel courses engage in is a form of world-making; it helps produce a world of people who need refuge outside their home areas. In the end, I suggest that the exercise of immobility on the part of students and faculty concerned with forced migration can enrich the learning experience for all. It can also help to challenge the socio-ecological inequities that contribute to forced migration and the nation-state apparatuses of exclusion that limit the mobility of refugees and other people on the move.