Refugee week at City Lit: Rhetoric and Refugees in politics, pop culture and the press

What is the course about?

Refugee Weekis the world’s largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

For Refugee Week 2026, City Lit is offering a series of one‑off workshops that promote inclusion, understanding and shared creativity. Led by our expert tutors, the sessions will focus on lived experiences of displacement, bringing together students, staff and the local community for storytelling, skill‑sharing and cultural exchange. You can find out more aboutCity Lit's journey to becoming a College of Sanctuaryhere.

Drawing on ‘positive’ as well as ‘negative’ depictions of people on the move, we’ll reflect critically on how categories of difference, deservingness and otherness are constructed and circulated through headlines, politicians speeches, social media, television and film -before exploring alternatives that may challenge or even rewrite harmful, dominant narratives.

What will we cover?

• How people are categorised - both legally and socially -as migrants
• Tracing connections between news media, social media and policy
• Depictions of migrant communities by NGOs, television and media
• Challenges to ‘othering’ rhetoric

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• Understand how migrants are categorised and depicted in different contexts
• Conduct a critically informed reading of media, language and imagery
• Effectively challenge language and imagery that ‘others’ people on the move

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

This session is suitable both for newcomers to the subject and for those who have some background knowledge. You will need a good grasp of English to keep up with the course.

Given the sensitive nature of the topics the session will explore, we also expect everyone to engage group and class discussions with respect and the willingness to learn from others.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

In this interactive workshop-style session, we will explore primary sources including newspaper reports, political speeches, legal and policy documents and social media excerpts. Together, we’ll develop and use a critically-informed lens to analyse representations of migration in three overlapping spheres: politics, the press and pop culture. Working in small and large groups, we’ll workshop and debate potential alternatives and challenges to dominant narratives.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

There are no additional costs, but you may wish to bring pen and paper or a digital equivalent for notetaking .

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

View our other Refugee Week courses and workshops here.