Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies

Located in the world’s most diverse city, with more than half of all Torontonians born outside of Canada, the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies approaches the city of Toronto as a window onto the world.

Outward facing, with a global perspective, the Centre is an incubator for transnational and diasporic research across the humanities and social sciences. It serves as a connective tissue between otherwise divergent departments and schools while also supporting original research and engaged teaching.

The Centre takes ‘diaspora’ to mean the shifting relations between homelands and host nations from the perspective of those who have moved, whether voluntarily or not. The study of diaspora emphasizes the lived experience of migrant communities whose existence and self-understanding precede and/or exceed national boundaries. Its study necessarily involves awareness that the ability to move has all too often come at the expense of indigenous communities.

‘Transnationalism’ encompasses not just the movement of people but also citizenship, technology, forms of governance, modes of political organization, and market impulses.

For more information, visit http://cdts.utoronto.ca/