Archive: Aprile 11th, 2013

• Borders and walls

Direct link here:
 
Borders, Walls and Security
 
International conference organized by the Raoul Dandurand Chair at the
University of Quebec at Montreal in association with the Association for
Borderlands Studies
 
University of Quebec at Montreal, Quebec, Canada
October 17th and 18th, 2013
 
Fields: Political Science, Geography, Anthropology, Sociology, Law,
Economics, Design, Biology, Art, Environmental studies, Feminist Studies.
 
Grad Students are welcome to submit a proposal.
 
In the post-9/11 world, fences and towers reinforce and enclose national
territories, while security discourses link terrorism with immigration, and
immigration with illegality, criminal violence and radical Islam. The
European Union (EU) claims to tear down walls, while building external walls
ever higher. At the same time, the US considers how best to deploy towers
and walls along its border zones while implementing an integrated border
management regime. This development is not limited to these two world
regions, however. Elsewhere in the global world walls dissecting borderlands
are becoming higher. In Asia, India is finishing up its fence around
Bangladesh. On all four continents, changes in border policy go along with a
heightened discourse on internal control and a shift from borderlines to an
ubiquity of control. Such walls are Œwalling in¹ as well as Œwalling out¹.
By this we mean that the traditional geopolitics of bordering are
supplemented, rather than fully replaced, by a national biopolitics,
involving new definitions of who belongs and who does not belong, who is
potentially represented as a threat and a risk internally, and who should be
removed from the body of the state.
The experience of migrations, asylum-seekers, targeted ethnicities, and
non-citizen residents has also been profoundly touched by securitization
assessments rooted in geopolitics emanating from assessments of conditions
outside of the state. Law-enforcement agencies at national and even
international level, problematize ethnicity and identity in context of
terrorism and criminality, or associated geopolitical orientations based
upon nationalist and ethnicity. Systems and facilities for monitoring and
gathering data on migrants and asylum seekers, are a product of the
opportunity offered by border control, and are now an important component of
a counter-terrorist agenda. They too, demand walls in which to embed their
technologies.
 
Participants are encouraged to critically examine the role of wall in
security discourses, particularly with respect to immigration and
citizenship, and to consider some of the following questions:
 
Theme 1. Border fences, walls and identities
 
Construction of national and local identities
Theoretical limology, walls and epistemology
Anthropological approaches to border walls and fences
Sociology of the walls/fences and their borderlands
 
Theme 2. Impacts of border walls
 
Social and environmental impacts
Economical impacts
Bypass strategies
Security industry and border fences & walls
Art, Borders and Walls
 
Theme 3. Legal aspects of border walls
 
Separation and legitimation
Border walls: failure or success?
International, national and local
Legal aspects: Human rights and the wall, norms and the wall
 
Theme 4. Biopolitics of border walls
 
Security discourses, geopolitical and biopolitical assessments, and walls
9/11 security discourse, marginality and border fences
Spatialization of insecurity and border fences
 
Deadline

Deadline for abstract submission: April 20th, 2013
 
Practical Information

 
Please include the following information (300 words):
 
Name of authors/contributors
Institutional affiliations, titles
Contact: telephone, fax, email, mailing address
Title of the paper
Abstract: Subject, empirical frame, analytical approach, theme
Send your proposals via email in Word format to Elisabeth Vallet at
UQAM:BordersandWalls@gmail.com
 
Languages

Proposals can be submitted in French, Spanish and English. However the
conference will be held in English and French.
 
Calendar

April 20th 2013 : deadline for submitting abstracts and proposals
June 2013 : proposals selection and notification sent to presenters
August, 24th 2013 : submission of papers to discussants
October, 17th and 18th, 2013 : Conference to be held in Montreal

• Workshops ‘Diplomatic Cultures’

A call for participation in the second of three workshops of the ‘Diplomatic Cultures’ research network: www.diplomaticcultures.com
 
This workshop will focus on the role of space and spatiality in diplomatic exchange and will take place on Friday 21- Saturday 22 June 2013 at University College London. Confirmed keynote speakers are Iver Neumann (International Relations, LSE), John Watkins (English, University of Minnesota) and Herman van der Wusten (Geography, University of Amsterdam). There are a small number of places available for early career researchers working on relevant issues. Priority for places at this workshop will be given to such researchers based in the UK for whom funding for travel is available. Participation involves preparing a 10 minute presentation on the (changing) spaces of diplomacy viewed through the lens of your research and contributing to group discussions relating to the broad theme of ‘translating diplomatic cultures’ (details here: http://www.diplomaticcultures.com/styled/styled-4/index.html). We are particularly interested in hearing from scholars working on issues around:
 
– Digital/ virtual diplomacy
 
– Embassies and ambassadorial networks
 
– The UN and other international diplomatic fora
 
– The production of diplomatic spaces through performance
 
To apply for a place please contact Fiona McConnell (Fiona.mcconnell@ncl.ac.uk) with a 200 word summary of your research interests and a short biography by 19th April 2013.
 
Podcasts of presentations at the first workshop in this series, held at the University of Cambridge in February, are available here: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2013/02/translating-diplomatic-culture/ and a third workshop will be held in The Hague on 8-9 November 2013. To join the email list for the network please enter your contact details here:
 
https://www.mailinglists.ucl.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/diplomatic-cultures