Deadline for Submissions: August 15, 2017
Association for Borderlands Studies World Conference 2018 – Call for Papers
After the success of the ABS 1st World Conference in 2014, The Association for Borderlands Studies is most pleased to announce the second event in this truly international conference series. The ABS 2nd World Conference is organized by the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna and hosted in Vienna and Budapest, 10th to 14th July 2018. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, we invite proposals for individual papers, posters, complete panels, podium discussions and other interventions related to the interdisciplinary study of borders, border areas and cross-border interaction. The organizing theme for this Conference is:
Border-Making and its Consequences – interpreting evidence from the “post-Colonial” and “post-Imperial” 20th Century
Borders and borderlands are again at the centre of debate regarding global political, socio-cultural, economic and environmental tensions and conflicts – they also potentially offer spaces of negotiation and dialogue for their resolution. Global history however testifies to the fact that borderlands have frequently been a target of mistrust, precisely because they have been perceived as threatening – as ambiguous spaces of identity, allegiance, and historical memory. Attempts to eradicate borderlands have taken place through armed conflict, the ideological creation of the Cold War and other confrontational borders, the dismemberment of states, territorial shifts and, most drastically, ethnic cleansing.
The post-imperial experience of Europe, for example, raises numerous questions that relate to borders, identities and citizenship and, ultimately, migration. The dissolution of multinational empires such as the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman in the early 20th Century as well as the creation of new states and/or borders in Western Europe, such as Ireland, which inspired other subjects of colonial empires, were momentous historical events with far-reaching consequences far beyond Europe. However, one of the lessons that emerged from this experience is that nationalisms that insist on singular identities and cultural homogeneity are permanent sources of conflict. Whereas borders and the creation of new nation-states were considered a solution to war after WWI, subsequent events and the disaster of WWII have proved otherwise. Continue reading “CFP: Association for Borderlands Studies World Conference 2018 (U. of Vienna)”