Our world has become increasingly global and instances of political, economic and ecological refugees abound, as well as displacements, migrations and expatriations. Artists around the world grapple with what it means to be part of a cultural diaspora, separated from their cultural communities and land, yet intrinsically connected to them. From the diaspora of the Jews after leaving Jerusalem centuries ago and the forcible displacement around the world of Africans due to slavery to more recent instances that have caused displacement such as the 1978 revolution in Iran, ethnic cleansing in Albania, the Syrian refugee crisis, the crisis at the US's southern border from South America, we see a plethora of peoples dealing with the confusion and redefinition of cultural identity around the world. This class will explore how both chosen and forced migrations have been explored in visual and performance art, looking at the complicated political, social and psychological structures that inform these expressions and lend them their urgency. We will look at artworks by individuals as well as group movements, as well as less formal group expressions. While the class will focus on contemporary artists, we will trace histories of depictions of cultural and racial displacement and segregation from Edward S. Curtis's 19th century images of Native Americans to today's Indigenous self-depictions, as well as images of and by Black Americans. We will also look at more global representations of the diaspora experience. The class will consist of a mixture of lectures, discussions, presentations, and, hopefully, museum and studio visits. We will read, watch and hear about immigration experiences, using the artworks available to us to connect the causes to the effects and lived reality of border crossing, understanding that the Diaspora is not a single generation experience but an awareness of cultural displacement that lasts for generations, bolstered by exterior political, racial and socio-economic influences, as well as familial and communal cultural experiences and identities.