[Backstage-list] Gendering Border Studies: (Inter)disciplinary Approaches - Pontypridd, Wales, UK 10/05

[Peter Spillmann]

>The Centre for Border Studies, University of Glamorgan
>in co-operation with
>the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory,  Cardiff University
>the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, York University and
>the Berlin School for Comparative European History, HU Berlin and FU
>Berlin, Pontypridd, Wales, UK
>13.10.2005-15.10.2005, University of Glamorgan
>Deadline: 31.10.2004
>
>International Conference: Gendering Border Studies: (Inter)disciplinary
>Approaches
>
>The study of borders has undergone a significant transition during the
>past fifteen years. This largely reflects parallel changes in the
>functions of boundaries themselves, as the world political map has
>experienced transformations, not only in terms of the territorial
>configuration of states and sovereign territories, but also - and
>perhaps more importantly - in terms of the functional role of boundaries
>in a globalised world. A mere fifteen years ago, boundaries still
>fulfilled the barrier functions associated with the Iron Curtains that
>divided the world into two camps - state socialist and capitalist.
>During the past decade, however, they have been breached, giving rise to
>a reassessment of their role in the new world. This process is highly
>ambivalent as is obvious if we look at the recent European development.
>The extension of the European Union contributes on the one hand to the
>erosion of internal borders inside the Europe, on the other hand to the
>creation of more rigid external borders between the EU and the world
>beyond. Furthermore, the process of disintegration of the traditional
>political boundaries seems to give rise to an increasing importance of
>culturally constructed mental borders.
>
>As a result of this development the study of borders has received a new
>impetus. Traditionally, border studies concentrated on issues of
>security and sovereignty and used the term border to denote both the
>legal borderline between states and the frontier of political and
>cultural contestation. More recently, however, borders have also been
>analysed as a term of discourse existing at the level of various ideas
>and symbolic forms, representing narratives of both visible and
>invisible lines. Today, then, borders are not just studied as a part of
>the international geopolitical landscape and the nation and nation-state
>system, but also as discursive practices that create and negotiate
>meanings, norms and values and form thereby lived experiences. Such an
>interdisciplinary approach of border studies is based on four
>assumptions: Firstly that borders are neither eternal nor fixed, but
>extremely variable and politically, socially and culturally constructed
>in concrete historical settings. Secondly, that borders are a mental
>device for distinguishing between ”them” and ” us”, for exclusion and
>inclusion, and draw the lines of 'difference'; thereby they are a
>crucial ingredient in any imagined community and its collective
>identity. Thirdly, that borders are the products of interaction and
>negotiation between different interest groups that try to use the
>borders to create power relations and hierarchies; as markers of
>difference borders thus are highly contested. Last but not least,
>innovative research in border studies should relate to the spatial
>dimension of borders; a particularly interesting aspect for the analysis
>is the question of the relationship between concrete territories and
>imagined communities.
>
>Gender (defined as the knowledge about perceived distinctions between
>the sexes) is an important signifier of borders as constructed and
>contested lines of differences. In the interplay with other categories
>of difference like class, race, ethnicity, and religion, gender plays a
>major role in giving meaning to different forms of borders. Far from
>referring only to men and women or concepts of masculinity and
>femininity, gender constructions are primary means of signifying
>relationships of power that create asymmetry and hierarchy. In this
>sense, nearly all border discourses are gendered. It is not surprising
>then that an increasing number of studies in the last years aimed for a
>gendering of border studies. There are not only enquiries that examine
>gender as a cultural border, but also studies that explore vice versa
>the role that territorial borders play in the construction of gender
>ideologies. Furthermore work has been carried out into gendered
>representations of borders and border regions. Last but not least, an
>increasing body of research explores gendered experiences of territorial
>and cultural border crossings, not only migration, trade and travel, but
>also conquest, war and occupation. The work thus far done shows that
>gender in the interplay with other categories of differences gives
>meaning to most of the boundary-producing processes
>
>This international conference aims to explore the new interdisciplinary
>field of gendered border studies and develop it further. The focus will
>be on theoretical and methodological questions. We would like to discuss
>the possibilities and limits of this new interdisciplinary field and
>define the most important problems and questions for further research.
>Established scholars from various disciplines will give a 30-minute
>keynote lectures in which they will set how the issue of gender and
>borders has been approached in their discipline and describe what they
>expect from future research. The main questions that we would like to
>discuss are: How do we define 'borders', 'frontiers' and 'boundaries' in
>different disciplinary approaches of gendered border studies? What were
>and are the main fields of gendered border studies in different
>fields/disciplines? What might be important questions for future
>research? How useful is an inter- or transdisciplinary approach be
>productive for gendered border studies?
>
>The speakers of the keynote lectures are :
>
>History: Dr. Jane Rendall (York University)
>Postcolonial studies: Prof. Catherine Hall (University of London)
>Ethnic Studies: Prof. Nira Yuval Davis (University of East London)
>International Relations: Prof. Ruth Seifert (University of Regensburg)
>Anthropology: Dr. Laura H. Assmuth (University of Helsinki)
>Migration Studies: Prof. Eithne Luibheid (Bowling Green State
>University, Ohio)
>Psychology: Dr. Marion Kloep (University of Glamorgan)
>Cultural Studies: Prof. Chris Weedon (Cardiff University)
>
>Each keynote lecture will be followed by one or two 20 minute papers
>that provide a particular case study, illuminating some of the different
>approaches taken to the study of gender and borders.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words by Word or RTF
>attachment to one of the organizers. Provide your name, email and postal
>address, title of paper and university affiliation on your abstract and
>submit a two-page curriculum vitae.
>
>The deadline for submission is: October 31, 2004.
>
>Organisers:
>
>Prof. Karen Hagemann (University of Glamorgan)
>email: <hagemann at kgw.tu-berlin.de>
>Dr. Deborah James (University of Glamorgan)
>email: <djames2 at glam.ac.uk>
>Prof. Chris Weedon (Cardiff University)
>email: <WeedonCM at Cardiff.ac.uk>
>
>in co-operation with
>
>Dr. Henrice Altink (York University )
>Dr. Ruth Leiserowitz (Humboldt University of Berlin)
>PD Dr. Arnd Bauerkaemper (Berlin School for Comparative European
>History)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Centre for Border Studies
>School of Humanities
>University of Glamorgan
>Pontypridd, CF37 1DL, Wales, United Kingdom
>
>Homepage <www.centreforborderstudies.co.uk/>
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