15th Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality, March 28 – 31, 2012
Borders and Borderlands: Contested Spaces
Submission deadline is November 30, 2011.
The Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality are a conference series
organized in cooperation between the Social Science Research Center Berlin
(WZB), Humboldt-Universität Berlin, and the Irmgard Coninx Foundation.
Based on an international essay competition, we will invite approximately
45 applicants to discuss their research, concerns and agendas with peers
and prominent scholars in Berlin. The competition is open to scholars
(max. up to 5 years after Ph.D.), journalists and professionals working on
borderlands (e.g. government agencies and NGOs). The Irmgard Coninx
Foundation will cover travel to and accommodation in Berlin.
In the tradition of previous Berlin Roundtables the 15th Berlin
Roundtables will focus on borders and borderlands as contested spaces.
Conference papers can address but are not limited to the following topics:
– social and cultural life in borderlands
– border cities
– constructing and undercutting borderland identities
– borders in art, literature, and film
– historical making and shifting of borders
– cultural, political, and economic blending and challenges
– legal, political and military border control systems
– creation of illegality and legality
– changing political, economic and social functions of borders
– historical contingency of border regimes
– struggle and cooperation over natural resources
– borders as a refuge for biodiversity and environmental protection –
conflicts over environmental pollution
Discussions will take place in three workshops chaired by Julie Chu
(University of Chicago) and Tatiana Zhurzhenko (University of Vienna),
Mattias Kumm (Humboldt-Universität Berlin, WZB and New York University)
and Eric Tagliacozzo (Cornell University), and Michael Redclift (King’s
College London) and Maria Tysiachniuk (Center for Independent Research St.
Petersburg).
Conference participants are eligible to apply for one of up to three
three-month fellowships to be used for research at in Berlin at the WZB.
For further information on the conference and the background paper:
www.irmgard-coninx-stiftung.de