Important: please note that this event took place on Jan 18-19, 2024
For detailed abstracts, please refer to the book of abstracts.
Day 1 Jan 18 Day 2 Jan 19 Day 3 Jan 20
Day 1, January 18
9:30—9:40
Welcome / room M-225
9:40—10:25
Keynote Speech “Border Thinking” as an Evolutionary and Global Approach to Critical Border Studies by Dr James W. Scott / room M-225
James W. Scott is a researcher in urban and regional geography, borders, border regions, and geopolitics, at the Borders thematic cluster at the Karelian Institute of the University of Eastern Finland.
10:25—11:10
Keynote Speech Moving Border by Dr Swargajyoti Gohain / room M-225
Swargajyoti Gohain is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University. She has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Emory University, U.S.A., and a Bachelors and Masters in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. Her research interests include the study of borders and state, cultural politics, Tibetan Buddhist communities, and mountain studies relating to the Indian Himalayas.
Coffee break / Mare Atrium
11:30—13:00
PANEL 1: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS MEETS BORDER STUDIES / room M-225
Chair / Discussant: Eiki Berg, University of Tartu
Mélanie Sadozaï / George Washington University / Wilson Center / INALCO / “When International Relations theories meet border studies: a transnationalist approach to the study of the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan”
Fauzan / Universitas Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Yogyakarta / Polymorphic Borders and Border Security: Indonesian Perspective
Asel Murzakulova / University of Central Asia / How to keep the neighbourhood when the border guard requires a passport? Security dilemma in the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan borderlands
Benjamin Klasche & Birgit Poopuu / Tallinn University / Radical relationalism: the politics of self- other bordering in International Relations
Lunch / Mare Atrium
14:00—15:30
PANEL 2 and PANEL 3 take place in parallel
PANEL 2: PARTITION, TERRITORIALIZED IDENTITIES, JURISDICTIONS AND COMMUNITIES / room M-225
Chair / Discussant: Victor Konrad, Carleton University
Uttam Lal / Sikkim University, Gangtok / Re-bordering in the frozen borderland of the Sikkim Himalaya
Dhananjay Tripathi / South Asian University / Studying South Asian Borders: A Post-Colonial, Post-Partition Framework ONLINE
Iverson Ng / Tallinn University / One State, Two Jurisdictions: Conceptualizing Sino-Hong Kong Judicial Border
Hilmi Ulas / Chapman University / Theorizing the Border-Identity-Conflict Nexus in Unrecognized States: A Case Study of North Cyprus
PANEL 3: INFORMAL CROSS-BORDER SOLIDARITIES / room M-213
Chair / Discussant: John Buchanan, Tallinn University
Sarian Jarosz / Migration Consortium/Amnesty International/University of Copenhagen / Stuck in a Polish Jungle: State hostility and criminalization of border solidarity at Polish-Belarussian and Polish-Ukrainian border
Jiraporn Laocharoenwong / Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University / Appetite for hot-fresh meat and the Thailand-Myanmar cross-border cattle trade
Terry McDonald & Benjamin Klasche / Tallinn University / HIVEMIND. What Bees and Relationalism can teach us about World Peace
Coffee break / Mare Atrium
16:00—17:30
PANEL 4 and PANEL 5 take place in parallel
PANEL 4: SPECIAL TOPIC: Migration, Instrumentalization and the EU / room M-213
Chair / Discussant: Olga Cielemęcka, University of Eastern Finland
Justyna Straczuk / Institute of Philosophy and Sociology Polish Academy of Sciences / Epistemic borderwork and epistemic resistance around the “humanitarian crisis” in Poland
Aleksandra Jolkina / Refugee Law Initiative, University of London / The ‘Instrumentalisation’ Paradigm Reconsidered: Accessing Asylum During the EU-Belarus Border Crisis
Rubén Pérez-Belmonte / La Sapienza University of Rome / The Architecture of Schengen Borders: Spatial Violence at the Border Checkpoints of Ceuta (Spain)
Lehte Roots / Tallinn University / Schengen border code as a legal instrument providing freedom of movement.
PANEL 5: SEEING OTHER SOVEREIGNTIES: BEYOND THE TERRITORIAL HEGEMONY OF BORDERS ACROSS THE ENDS OF EURASIA / room M-225
Roundtable discussion (hybrid) ONLINE
Chair / Discussant: Aditya Kiran Kakati, University of Amsterdam
Alessandro Ambrosino / The Graduate Institute, Geneva
Kevide Lcho, Saktum Wonti, Tumuzo Katiry / The Highland Institute, Kohima
Tobias Marschall / The Graduate Institute, Geneva
Mélanie Vandenhelsken / Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Bernardo A. Michael / Department of History, Politics and International Relations, Messiah University, PA. USA.
Aditya Kiran Kakati / University of Amsterdam
Catriona Child / The Highland Institute, Kohima
Jasnea Sarma / University of Zurich
Mikel J.H. Venhovens / Aarhus University and University of Amsterdam
19:00
Symposium dinner at Platz Restaurant Roseni 7, 10111 Tallinn
Day 2, January 19
9:30—11:15
PANEL 6: NEW CONCEPTUAL DIRECTIONS IN BORDER STUDIES / room M-225
Chair / Discussant: Jussi P. Laine, University of Eastern Finland
Nawal Shaharyar / Tallinn University / No horse in the race: A critical engagement on bordering practices in scholarship through auto-ethnographic journaling
Sandra Hagelin / Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu / Feminist Perspectives to Disentangle Swedish Discourses on NATO, Space and Orders
Daniel Meier / Sciences Po Grenoble-Cerdap2 & University of Geneva / In-Between border spaces: Toward a comparative perspective
Nikola Lero / University of Sheffield / A Comparative Critical Theoretical Analysis of Boccagni’s and Davis’s Constructs in Border Studies: Similarities, Differences, and Overlaps ONLINE
Coffee break / Mare Atrium
11:45—13:15
PANEL 7 and PANEL 8 take place in parallel
PANEL 7: BORDERING TECHNOLOGIES / room M-225
Chair / Discussant: Andreas Stoiber, University of Amsterdam
Pavin Chachavalpongpun / Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University / Nationhood in the Cloud: Cyber Sovereignty in Thailand
Eiki Berg, Allan Allik, Helen Urmann / University of Tartu / Shrinking borderlands under surveillance: Technological and communal aspects to border security
Gintare Kudzmaite / Tampere University / AI-generated portrayals of borders and migration: Exploring the potentials for synthesizing context-specific knowledges in border studies ONLINE
PANEL 8: RETHINKING EXPERIENCES OF MIGRATION AND DISPLACEMENT / room M-213
Chair / Discussant: Hasan H. Karrar, Lahore University of Management Sciences
Christine Leuenberger & Bertrand Mizero / Cornell University & Aspire for Humanity Initiatives / Tales of Bordering and Migration: Experiences of East African immigrants in the U.S.
Sai Phyoe Zin Aung / Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University / Everyday bordering over Myanmar Migrants in Mae Sot, Thailand
Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman / Independent Researcher, Guwahati, Assam, India / Cultural Inclusion and Exclusion: Borders, Transboundary Spaces and Mobility in South Asia
Elizabeth Rhoads / Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University / Tracing Histories of Displaceability in Myanmar’s Borderlands
Lunch / Mare Atrium
14:15—15:45
PANEL 9: VOLUMINOUS BORDERING THROUGH THE AIR AND SEAS / room M-225
Chair / Discussant: Tina Harris, University of Amsterdam
Tarmo Pikner / Tallinn University / Porous maritime borders and contested discontinuities in crisis
Shahdab Perumal / University of Delhi / Borderless Ocean, RIC, and formation of dual identity
Ahmad Baydoun / Technical University of Delft / Conditioned Environments: Investigating Environmental Manipulation as a Tool of Warfare and Political Violence in the Levant Region
Andreas Stoiber / University of Amsterdam / I spy with my little eye: The Space-Eye-project as a gateway to currently developing aerial surveillance infrastructures in the Mediterranean border zone
Coffee break / Mare Atrium
16:00—17:30
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION / room M-225
Karin Dean, Tallinn University
Tina Harris, University of Amsterdam
Jussi Laine, University of Eastern Finland
Hasan H. Karrar, Lahore University of Management Sciences
TBA
Day 3, January 20
panel to be held in Narva
PANEL 10: CREATIVE APPROACHES TO BORDERS
Chair / Discussant: Aleksandra Ianchenko, Tallinn University
Danica Trifunjagić / Institute for Danube-Swabian History and Area Studies / Writing Borders / Border Writings in Post-Yugoslav Autobiographical Prose ONLINE
Prince Tomar / Builders, Building, and the Built: The Connectivity Infrastructures of Ladakh
Shameema Binte Rahman / Freelance Art Writer (ERR and Echo Gone Wrong) / How images drive to see new cultural in-between border spaces in the land back movement in a Santal village in Bangladesh ONLINE
Elifsena Biroğlu & Gülay Uğur Göksel / İstanbul Bilgi University / Representation of and Academic Reflection on Borders in The Other Stories Exhibition. ONLINE
Saara Mildeberg / Tallinn University / Narva Art Residency: Perceiving borders through the artists’ gaze