“Bordering Nature” international symposium

Please join us (or tune in for online events) this September for an interdisciplinary symposium:

“Bordering Nature: Reimagining borders against the climate of crisis”

University of

Eastern Finland, Joensuu

27-28 September 2023

Increased global instability, viral spread of the COVID-19, and growing security concerns in Europe have resulted in a proliferation of bordering practices across the continent and beyond. The intersection of environmental and border security concerns becomes particularly important as the Earth is dangerously approaching the climate tipping points and human migrants fleeing from politically volatile or war-stricken places, are joined by those displaced due to drought and other climate related phenomena. In addition, border regimes and infrastructures have been shown to negatively impact borderland ecologies. They contribute to the fragmentation of habitats and disruption of animal migratory patterns, consequently, hampering their adaptation to climate change. Against the background of the border-defying nature of contemporary global problems and the ubiquity of environmental crisis, there is an urgent need for cross-disciplinary conversations on various practices of bordering and their environmental dimensions.

The symposium “Bordering nature: Reimagining borders against the climate of crisis” aims to create a platform for discussions and interventions that examine how environmental crisis, social inequality, migration, security and bordering are mutually implicated. The symposium will provide space for its speakers and attendees to discuss the ways in which nature has been—and continues to be—bordered in various senses, contexts, and locations.

“Bordering nature” is an open invitation to consider the many meanings of both “nature” and “borders” (concepts we intentionally leave imprecise and open to interpretation) and the connections that run between them. Hence, “Bordering nature” may refer to—but is not limited to—problems of nature conservation in border regions; border fences and militarization of “green” borders; border regimes and climate change; climate migrations; and environmental history of migrations. Furthermore, it poses questions of the borders and boundaries established in scientific knowledge production and their consequences for political inclusion and exclusion (in reference to, e.g., concepts of race and ethnicity, species, sexuality, or gender). We hope to broaden the scope of discussions on borders through an enriched and vibrant dialogue with environmental history, human geography, political philosophy, gender studies, Indigenous science, decolonial theory, art, and more.

Our amazing confirmed speakers: May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University; Jussi Laine, University of Eastern, Finland; Marco Armiero, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. (Online) Michal Pospiszyl, Polish Academy of Sciences; artist and filmmaker Kasia Hertz.

Event is funded by Bomocult Borders, Mobilities and Cultural Encounters Research Community at the University of Eastern Finland and the Joensuu University Foundation.

Have questions? Email me at olga.cielemecka[at]uef.fi