Visible/Invisible Bordrs: Ethnographic Reflections on Materiality, Ontology

and Politics of Borders

Rozita Dmova
Humboldt University-Berlin
rozita.dimova@staff.hu-berlin.de

In this module we will investigate making and breaking of borders along different spatial
and temporal axes by examining materiality of borders not as over-determined by nationstates but rather as sites of contradiction and agency affected by the presence of the state and
other governing regimes. We will also focus on border materialisms both as ontological
manifestations of matter, but also as forces (energies) operating through visible and invisible
forms. We will try to trace the move between materiality and materialism by assessing how
borders are constituted by and constitutive of politics infused with various socio-economic,
aesthetic, humanitarian, legal, bio-ethical, religious or ecological features. We will zoom onto
South Eastern Europe to better examine the specific features of this region but we will also
address examples from other regions of the world (e.g. US/Mexico border, the Middle East,
etc.). Our main aim will be to discern the conceptual dimension of borders by addressing
theoretical issues such as materiality, visibility, symbolism, transgression, desire or violence
and to rethink their self-evident appearance as lines or dividers while showing the multivalent
strings that trigger intertwined border reactions with violent, symbolic, spatial, temporal, or
other qualities. The main teaching method will be a combination of lectures and interactive
discussion in which the participants are expected to contribute to this topic by drawing on the
articles supplied in advance.
Required texts:
file:///Users/administrator/Downloads/view.php.html (Agnew)
Agnew, John. 2007. "No Borders, No Nations: Making Greece in Macedonia." Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 97:398-422.
file:///Users/administrator/Downloads/view-1.php.html (Ballinger)
Ballinger, Pamela. 2004. ""Authentic Hybrids in the Balkan Borderlands." Current
Anthropology 45:31-60.

Optional but recommended texts:

file:///Users/administrator/Downloads/view-3.php.html (DeGenova)
DeGenova, Nicolas. 2002. "Migrant illegality and deportability in everyday life." Annual
Review of Anthropology 31.
file:///Users/administrator/Downloads/view-2.php.html (Bornstein)

Bornstein, Avram S. 2002. "Borders and the utility of violence: state effects on the
"superexploitation" of West Bank Palestinians." Critique of Anthropology 22:201-220.