Frontiers and Borders in Global and Transnational History

Workshop, 6-7 September, Ghent, Belgium

NW Posthumus network 'Drivers and Carriers of Globalization' / Ghent University 'Communities Comparisons Connections'-Research Group 06.09.2013-07.09.2013, Ghent

The workshop investigates the role of borders and frontiers in transnational and global history (15th - 21st centuries). Anyone wishing to attend is more than welcome to, but should contact torsten.feys [at] ugent.be before the end of August.

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Friday, 6 September

13h15: Welcome, Presentation & Introduction: Eric Vanhaute, Eric Van der Vleuten and Torsten Feys

14h00-15h30: Session 1: Communities shaped by borders, frontiers shaped by communities?
Chair: Erik van der Vleuten (Eindhoven University)

Karen Arijs (Free University of Brussels): Deconstruction of borders and familiarity: analysis of historical representations of 'others' through research on celebrations in cross-border region Limburg in the 19th and early 20th century
Discussant: Hans Krabbendam (Middelburg, Roosevelt Study Center)

Hanne Cottyn (Ghent University): At the frontier of land commodification. Community land and indigenous tribute in Carangas during Bolivia's first land reform (1866-1952)
Discussant: Thomas Hall (DePauw University)

Ad Knotter (Maastricht University): Perspectives on Cross-border Labour in Europe: '(Un)familiarity', 'Push-and-Pull', or 'Social Control'? A view from the Dutch-Belgian-German borderland, 1900-1973
Discussant: Frank Caestecker (Ghent University)

16h00-17h30: Session 2: Watering down the borders: the liquidity of space confinements
Chair: Prof. Michael Limberger (Ghent University)

Torsten Feys (Ghent University): Comparing transpacific and transatlantic leaks in the US borders: a shipping company's view (1870-1930)
Discussant: Milla Davids (Eindhoven University)

Inge Brinkman (Leiden University): Rivers as borders in Africa.
Discussant: Thomas Hall (DePauw University)

Vincent Lagendijk (Leiden University): Damming the Cold War? The Construction of the Nam Ngum Dam as a Contested Space in Southeast Asia
Discussant: Eric Vanhaute (Ghent University)

17h45-18h45: Key note: Thomas Hall

Saturday, 7 September

9h00-10h30: Session 3: The business in borders and frontiers: their impact on commercial structures and state formation
Chair: Eric Vanhaute (Ghent University)

Mila Davids (Eindhoven University): Transatlantic knowledge transfer and appropriation activities of Unilever: the case of Becel"
Discussant: Joris Mercelis (Ghent University)

Bas De Roo (Ghent Universtiy): Customs systems and colonial power in Africa: taxing cross border trade in the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (1885-1914)
Discussant: Dries Lesage (Ghent University)

Robrecht Declercq (European University Institute/Ghent University): Creating a Commercial Frontier: The German Fur Industry in South-West Africa. 1900-1939
Discussant: Jeroen Touwen (Leiden University)

11h00-12h00: Session 4 Border management during the early modern age of empires
Chair: Thomas Hall (Depauw University)

Catia Atunes (Leiden University): Birthing and Aborting Borders: The Curious Case of European Colonial Empires, 1500-1750
Discussant: Violet Soen (Leuven University)

Bram De Ridder (Leuven University): Strategies of 'border management', 1580-1660
Discussant: Michael Limberger (Ghent University )

13h00-14h00: Session 5: Repercussion of military conflicts on frontiers
Chair: Ad Knotter (Maastricht University)

Arjen Ligtvoet (Groningen State University): The shifting genocidal frontier of Auschwitz
Discussant: Marianne Rostgaard (Aalborg University)

Martin Ottovay Jørgensen (Aalborg University / Ghent University): The 'Mission Areas' of International Military Operations as Frontiers: The Socio-Spatial Regimes of the UN operations in the Gaza Strip and Cyprus

14h30-15h30: Session 6: Transport networks as constructors or deconstructors of borders?
Chair: Milla Davids (Eindhoven University)

Erik van der Vleuten (Eindhoven University): Europe's border builders
Discussant: Inge Brinkman (Leiden University)

Marten Boon / Joep Schenk (Erasmus University Rotterdam): Transnational transport networks in the lower Rhine Region (1870-2010)
Discussant: Torsten Feys (Ghent University)

15h45-17h00: General Discussion & Closing remarks
Chair: Jeroen Touwen, Eric Vanhaute
Discussants: Erik van der Vleuten, Torsten Feys

eMail: torsten.feys [at] ugent.be

[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Soz-u-Kult]