Crossing Borders - Publication of German-American Book on Borderlands

Prof. Dr. Michael North, Photo: Kilian Dorner

Doctoral Candidates and professors from Greifswald and Santa Barbara (USA) have published a joint anthology. The authors compare borderlands of the ancient world, in the American West and in the Baltic Sea Region. The publication “Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America” was published in the series “Borderlands and Transcultural Studies” by the University of Nebraska Press. The book is edited by the professors John W.I. Lee (University of California at Santa Barbara) and Michael North (University of Greifswald).

The comparison of borderlands in various regions of the world and at different periods in time gives insights into the military, religious, economic, political and cultural interaction in these spaces. It also becomes clear that processes of creating and dismantling borders play an important role and should be examined more thoroughly by the academic world. This applies to the new external borders towards Russia, caused by the eastward extension of the EU, but also to the USA’s isolation of Mexico. They are not only influenced by the daily politics, but also by long-lived interpretative and behavioural patterns.

The book therefore considers the exchange between the indigenous population of North America amongst themselves and with the European colonial powers and the migration in the borderlands between Mexico and the USA. These are contrasted with border-crossing activities in Swedish Pomerania, Courland, Lithuania and Belarus. A comparison to the Roman Empire shows the long continuity of imperial demarcations of borders.

Greifswald’s International Research Training Group Baltic Borderlands: Shifting Boundaries of Mind and Culture in the Borderlands of the Baltic Sea Region and the Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group from the University of California at Santa Barbara have worked together since 2010. This published anthology, in which the European and American research on this topic are presented in a dialogue, is the newest result of their joint work. This is also the goal of the conferences which take place on a regular basis in Santa Barbara and Greifswald. In this respect, Greifswald will host the conference Unjust Borderlands: Injustice and Cultural Bordering from the 3rd to the 5th May 2017.


Further Information

J. W. I. Lee/M. North (ed.), Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. – ISBN: 978-0-8032-8562-0. – 288 S.; $ 60.00
Book on the University of Nebraska Press website
Book excerpt

Contact at the University of Greifswald

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael North
Spokesman of the International Research Training Group “Baltic Borderlands”
Rubenowstraße 2
17489 Greifswald
northuni-greifswaldde
RTG Baltic Borderlands

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