BorderLAB - Advancing Trans-Regional Border Studies

The Eur-Asian Border Lab aims to catalyse trans-regional synergies and intellectual conversations among scholars studying borders and bordering across different world regions. We test theoretical ideas in diverse empirical settings and apply insights from academically peripheral regions to the heart of mainstream theorization of border studies. We understand bordering as an increasingly complicated and nuanced conceptual process at the core of many critical developments and practices worldwide. As scholars, we want to take research on bordering to new volumes, seeing borders as increasingly imagined, constructed, perceived and navigated in new spaces, virtual or literal, in the wake of more sophisticated and transformative technologies. We also seek to learn more about what borders and bordering constitute for practitioners and policy-makers through collaboration with them on the borders’ potential.

Our team of scholars come from three universities, supported by Horizon Europe Action on Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence, an EU project of the Twinning programme titled “Advancing Trans-Regional Border Studies” for 2022—2025.

Tallinn University is the leader of this project, aiming to enhance its capacity in border studies through networking, knowledge transfer, exchange of best practices and training activities.

The University of Eastern Finland brings in its experience and networks gained through leading numerous projects on borders and its leading role in the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS), and the perspective based on its cutting-edge research on borders in the EU and the US.

The University of Amsterdam, as one of the initiators of the Asian Borderlands Research Network (ABRN) and long-time organizers of its conferences, adds a perspective from the vibrant and fast-transforming Asian borderlands. The Eur-Asian Border Lab combines these perspectives and exceptional complementarities to encourage stimulating conversations in global border studies with a focus on Europe and Asia.

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