Center for the Study of Emergent Threats in the 21st Century

DGA & NYU Host Borderlands Conference

Posted in Events by gdga on November 3, 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009, the Conference on Governing the Dynamics of European Borderlands commenced at New York University.  Simon Reich, Director of the Division of Global Affairs and commencement Keynote, provided the initial dose to help us all think ‘borderlands’ for the multi-day conference.  Reich touched upon every presentation topic to be addressed, with a Q & A that flowed more like a roundtable dialogue.  Concepts of European borderlands were introduced, reaffirmed, disputed and defined, cultivating the conference landscape.   What are borderlands?  Are they man-made boundaries?  Are they natural borders created by bodies of water?  Are they the products of perceptions of class and culture?

New and seasoned scholars from both sides of the Atlantic convened to present their research on topics related to the complex dynamics of sending, transit and receiving countries within and outside of the European Union. Students including Turkish National Police and professors of disciplines ranging from English to Economics participated in lively discussions on a smorgasbord of migration and integration issues raised.  Country cases were presented on Italy, Spain and Morocco.   Other presentations explored foreign direct investment versus labor migration, countervailing effects of securitizing borders, Turkey’s internal borders and the Kurdish question, to name a few.  Among the presenting scholars were Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Kusum Mundra and Carlos Seiglie of Rutgers University-Newark.

On Friday, October 30, the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark hosted a full day of panel sessions.  The following day, New York University hosted a Saturday morning panel followed by the conference closing.  The conference was organized in collaboration with the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) at New York University, University of Kassel, Europe University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the Division of Global Affairs (DGA) and Rutgers University-Newark.  DGA received in-kind support from the Center for Emergent Threats in the 21st Century (ET21).

In the spring of 2010 there will be a concluding conference in Turkey in which borderlands scholars will offer their recommendations.

Please address your inquiries to:

Eleni Mavrogeorgis

Public Relations Officer

emavro@andromeda.rutgers.edu

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