The Eur-Asian Border Lab invites you to participate in an innovative essay contest exploring the concept of volumetric borders and bordering – conceptually, empirically, or metaphorically.
Bordering today occurs in increasingly complex and multidimensional spaces. Technological advancements have enabled humans to access, occupy, claim and operate in and across seas, airspace, and high-altitude environments, but also in virtual spaces, while climate change has opened previously inaccessible regions, such as the Arctic, to exploitation. Dependence on satellite-linked services and virtual domains continues to grow, and geopolitical competition now extends into outer space. Yet, our political organization remains rooted in a Cartesian view of static space, mutually exclusive territorial units, delineated by linear borders.
The essay contest invites scholars and practitioners engaged in border studies to explore the disconnect between territory-based conceptions of world politics and the evolving dynamics of volumetric, vertical, topological, and virtual spaces. We invite submissions to address the following questions: What is or will be the role of borders in ordering spaces? What could be alternative technical and discursive landscapes of control and power?
Practicalities
We invite you to submit an analytical essay, clearly structured around a central argument and grounded in theory. We encourage you to illustrate your analysis with ethnographic vignettes, poems, photographs, drawings, cartoons, or other innovative textual/visual formats. The goal is to make the content more accessible than a traditional academic article, to engage a wider audience in discussions about borders.
The text should be between 1,200 and 1,500 words (excluding references). All textual and visual materials included in your submission must be your original unpublished work, and you must hold the copyright for their use.
Assessment and rewards
The essays will be evaluated based on the quality of argumentation, originality, depth and/or persuasive vigour, as well as their style and format, in line with this call and the practicalities outlined above.
The members of the Eur-Asian Border Lab will conduct a blind review to shortlist the essays and select the winner and two runners-up. The winner will be invited to the Lab’s final event at Tallinn University, Oct 8-11, 2025, with travel (economy class) and accommodation covered. The three top essays will be published on the Eur-Asian Border Lab website and promoted on our social media. A wide range of border scholars would be introduced to your research!
Submission Deadline
Deadline: May 20, 2025, by 16:00 CET. The competition results will be announced on June 12, 2025.
Submission: Please submit your essay along with any supportive materials (or links to them) to info@borderlab.eu, following the instructions below.
Instructions for submission
Submission of text / pdf file
- Submit a pdf file with integrated visuals or links (in case of large files/multimedia).
- Name the pdf file using the title of your essay (max 15 words).
- Do not include your name in the pdf file title, anywhere within the essay or in image/visual captions to ensure a blind review process.
- Add a cover letter as a separate pdf file that includes your name, affiliation and the essay title, and a list of all submitted materials including images, multimedia or other visuals, and/or extra links.
Submission of visuals and multimedia
- Integrate visuals or links, together with their captions, into your pdf text document AND provide them as standalone images as well.
- Large files can be sent through WeTransfer (https://wetransfer.com/).
- Large multimedia files can be uploaded on a server (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, or Google Drive) and the full URL provided in the text and cover letter.
- Photo files should be JPEG images with good contrast, sharpness, a resolution of min 300 dpi and dimensions min 2560×2560 pixels.
- Image/visual captions should contain the title, information on place, and year or any other explanatory text.
- Include your full name as the author of the image/visual only in the cover letter, and not in the caption integrated in the text file.
Project no 101077207 „Advancing Trans-Regional Border Studies“ is funded by the European Union.