Grand Challenge: Challenging Borders

Workshop on Borders and Borderlands at the Global Crossroads

The American College of Greece, Athens June 19-24, 2019

The American College of Greece is inviting proposals for a 6-day workshop centered
on the multidimensional impact of the immigration crisis on borderlands, both
physical and conceptual. The workshop is funded through the Global Alliance Grand
Challenge Program 2018-19.

The workshop aims to promote research on new configurations of sociopolitical,

cultural, and legal conditions over and across borders, in the context of (forced)
migration; in addition, it will promote discussion on pedagogical approaches to
address 21st-century borderlands experienced and conceived under stress due to
immigration. The goal of the workshop is to forge connections between GLAA
participants and across GLAA institutions to allow for continued research
collaborations resulting in future publications and workshops; in addition, it will
promote development of pedagogical materials for teaching and learning about
borders, including shared teaching practices and resources.

To succeed in its mission, the workshop will bring together social scientists whose
research focuses on Border and Migration issues; participants will be able to share their
expertise and develop a comparative analysis of borders that will enhance their
teaching and scholarship. Emphasis will be placed on place-based learning through a
2-day site visit to a Greek island at the EU border, in collaboration with local NGOs.

Each participant will make a 15-minute presentation focusing on the ways in which
the topic of Borderlands and/or Migration informs their research and teaching.
Presentations will be related (but not limited) to the following topics:

➢ How can borders and borderlands be theoretically conceptualized?

➢ What are the characteristics of borderland(s) and which are the socio-political,
historical and cultural conditions that shape them?
➢ What is the impact of migrants’ and refugees’ massive influx on host countries
(social, political, cultural, economic, etc.) and what are the special challenges
that governments and host and/or transit countries face?
➢ How do receiving societies address national security concerns? How do such
concerns lead to intensification of border patrols, securitization and
surveillance?

ACG Borderlands Workshop Grand Challenge CFP 1

 ➢ What is the role of the media (local and global) and the state in framing the
influx of migrants (documented and undocumented) and refugees as a
(reception) “crisis”? What is the impact of this framing?
➢ How does the implementation of governmental policies and other structural
barriers affect immigrants’/ refugees’ lives in the borderlands?
➢ What is the impact of migrants’ and refugees’ presence in borderlands (i.e.
border regions/ islands, entry points, accommodation sites or areas of
immigrant settlement) and what are the responses of local communities?
➢ What is the role of humanitarian aid, supranational organizations and
institutions (i.e. UN, EU), civil society organizations and NGOs in dealing with
displacement and refugee crises?
➢ How are markers of distance and difference (i.e. ethnicity, religion, class,
gender, or other dimensions of inequality) created and reproduced? How do
such markers reinforce divisions between citizens and non-citizens, and how
do they affect social interaction? (i.e. between local population and immigrant
communities; among different groups and categories of migrants or refugees)
Is boundary crossing possible? (which boundary/ies and for whom?)
➢ How do host hostility, nativism, the rise of the far right and Islamophobia affect
receiving societies’ responses towards migrants/ refugees?
➢ What are the challenges of integration into the local community / national
society and culture for migrants and refugees? (i.e. cultural differences,
religion, language)
➢ How can education (i.e. reception classes, scholarships, informal education)
promote young immigrants’ integration in the host societies?
➢ In what ways do borders (re)define culture and shape people and identities?
➢ In what ways does activity in the culture sphere reinforce, challenge, and/or
complicate the idea of border as a concept and as lived experience?
➢ How does border crossing affect migrants’ and refugees’ sense of place,
identity, understandings of home? How do immigrants negotiate multiple
(old and new, shifting, oppositional) identities?

Prospective participants should send a 200-250 word abstract by December 15 (email

to maragou@acg.edu; libarts@acg.edu; czachou@acg.edu ); the abstract should be
focusing on research completed or in process, with emphasis on possibilities for
research and/or teaching collaborations on the topic of Borderlands and Migration.

Selection of applicants will be based on relevance of research activities and teaching;

there will be a maximum number of 4 participants per institution.

Total number of participants: 23.

Participant fees (Please consult Simon Gray, gray@glca.org, about supplemental

funding opportunities to participate in the workshop)
• Airfare to/from Athens
• 1,000 USD for hotel accommodation and transportation to/from the island of
Lesbos.

Other costs are covered through the GLAA Grand Challenge grant.

ACG Borderlands Workshop Grand Challenge CFP 2