Julia Wurm

Julia is a doctoral researcher at the Karelian Institute at the University of Eastern Finland and is enrolled in the PhD Programme in Border Studies. Before joining the Karelian Institute, she completed a Master of Advanced Study in Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and a Master of Social Sciences in Sociology from Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. Her earlier research examined lithium extraction and the “green” transition in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands and was supported by a two year Austrian Fulbright Scholarship and the 2025–26 Wells Fargo Transborder Chicana/o & Latina/o Studies Research Scholarship. Her dissertation examines borders as regulatory institutions that mediate the unequal social and ecological consequences of contemporary interlocking crises. Julia’s research investigates how borders shape the unequal distribution of socio-ecological costs and benefits, how these transformations are experienced and negotiated in everyday life, and how cross-border resilience, cooperation, and solidarity may contribute to more just transition pathways. Julia also serves as a student researcher at the Transborder Policy Lab and as chair of the annual Graduate Student Border Symposium.