Locating the Border

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schmidt
Prof. Dr. Robert Schmidt

 

Project duration: 1. 10. 2020 bis 30.9. 2022

Planned publication: Monograph

The project examines contentious cultural localizations of borders. It follows the observation that the border, in the contexts of migration, medialization, digitalization and (post-)migrant lifeways, has become the epitome of controversial and disputed cultural practices of localization that extend beyond the direct conflicts taking place at walls, fences, and other installations of border security. Currently, similarly disputed border demarcations are being foregrounded in the ongoing pandemic crisis. In reaction to the crisis, practices that seek to localize, contain, and territorialize globally spreading occurrences of infection are being implemented which intersect with processes of re-nationalization, ethnitization, culturalization, and de-globalization.

For the analysis of disputed cultural localizations of borders, the project combines media, literary, and cultural studies with sociological approaches of practice theory. It combines a focus on case studies with a foundational theoretical framework and aims to posit controversy and dispute as being constitutive for localization and demarcation processes. The project will result in a monograph that seeks to contribute to a new critical understanding of borders with implications for society, politics, and cultural analysis.