The UniGR-CBS at the 2023 World Conference on Border Studies

Over 250 border scholars from around the world met in Eilat, Israel, from February 13-18, 2023. There, the third World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) took place on the Eilat Campus of Ben-Gurion University in the tri-border region of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. The five-day conference, “Borders, Edges, and Interfaces. Pluralities and Scales” included numerous panels from the interdisciplinary spectrum of international border research and several field trips along the Israeli border.

Border scholars discussed new research findings from nearly all regions of the world, including North America, Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, and the Middle East. This includes 9 UniGR-CBS scholars, who participated in the conference program through 4 panels, 1 roundtable discussion and 6 talks. The panels organized by UniGR-CBS scholars from Saarland University, the University of Trier and the University of Luxembourg focused on borders from a cultural studies and migration studies perspective.

The head of the UniGR-CBS, Christian Wille, considered the world conference as an opportunity to make border research from the Greater Region more visible internationally: “The meeting of border scholars from all over the world is an excellent opportunity to establish new research contacts and to make the work of the UniGR-Center for Border Studies better known in the international scientific community.”

Four years earlier, the UniGR-CBS had already participated in what was then the second World Conference on Border Studies in Vienna and Budapest. The seven panels from the Greater Region dealt with migration, cross-border mobility, the labor market, and regional development in border regions. In addition, the UniGR-CBS (Astrid M. Fellner) cooperated with the University of Vienna to digitally record selected talks for use in teaching with funding from the Federal Agency for Civic Education. A highlight of the 2018 World Conference was the awarding of two UniGR-CBS doctoral researchers, Ulla Connor (University of Luxembourg) and Eva Nossem (Saarland University), whose excellent presentations were awarded a mobility grant.
 

More information on the 3rd World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS)
https://world.absborderlands.org

Review of the 2nd World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) here