Borders have become a hotly contested issue in public debate. For some they suggest security, for others they denote practices of exclusion and human rights violations. Against the background of President Trump’s insistence on the wall on the US-Mexico border, the webinar debates how in a global, seemingly border-free world, borders have taken on an important role of conceptualizing security and regulating migration.

Hosted since 2005 at the University of Victoria, the EUCAnet.org project focuses on stimulating exchange on EU-Canada topics. With the support of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet project of the European Union “Communication and Media Strategies for EU experts in Canada” and the Centre for Global Studies, the webinar series brought together experts in Canada with various stake holders (students, practitioners, media representatives) to engage with ideas on critical issues of politics and policy making in Canada and Europe.

Speakers

Oliver Schmidtke is Professor at the Department of Political Science and the Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University Victoria. His research interests are in the fields of comparative European politics and contemporary history, European integration, the political sociology of immigration and ethnic conflict, and the role of identities and collective memory in modern societies.

Elisabeth Vallet is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geography and scientific director of Geopolitics at the Raoul Dandurand Chair at the University of Quebec. Dr. Vallet will present aspects of her research on border fences in a globalised world. See also our video where she speaks about her research on the triggers for the increase of more borders/fences around the world and the impact this has for the redefinition of border lands and citizenship.