Interdisciplinary conference.

Borders can be territorial, geographical and political, physical or cultural. Yet they can never be defined exclusively through these terms because, regardless of the origins of that border, there is necessarily a consideration of plurality in relation to the operation of a built form. This is because the border is by definition, never singular. It is always a separation (and thus a joining) that occurs within a context. Thus, the certainty of abstraction is immediately undone by the plurality of particularities that exist within and around border conditions. From sites of military conflict to municipal boundaries, from housing estates to gated communities, it is this plurality that drives the continual return to discuss and understand the concept of borders and bordering, and that underpins this conference.

The border sites we are interested in discussing at this conference are not limited to those of nation-states. While important, limiting discussion of borders to such a narrow viewpoint risks entwining the discussion of border sites with the particularities of geo-political conflicts (and thus misses a layer of nuance) or even worse, abstracting back to drawn lines on a map. Such a limitation also ignores the operation of different kinds of borders that exist outside of state-lines but whose operation runs so parallel as to disappear into the horizon. This is what Mezzadra and Neilson call the 'proliferation' and 'heterogeneity' of borders; a plurality of sites whose operation continues to invite interrogation. Taking this intertwined idea and extrapolating further, the border can be defined as both site and method simultaneously.

We seek thought-provoking papers from a wide variety of disciplines (e.g. Architecture, Art, Literature, Cultural Geography, Philosophy or critical theory) that discuss an aspect of borders and their conditions, connected to particular instances of built environment. All papers accepted will be considered for a proposed special issue. Papers that focus on either pure policy without a grounding in the physical, or a simple site-analysis without an appeal to the theoretical, will not be considered.

Questions or thematic prompts:

How do borders bring the architectural, the methodological and the political into relation with each other?
What does the unity of border as both method and site do to expand the understanding of borders more broadly?
What do fictional border sites tell us about their built form contemporaries?
What are the implications of conceiving of borders purely in terms of Isolation or exclusion?
What is the relation between the singular and the plural in terms of borders?
Abstracts: 350 words
Full papers: 8,000 words
Keywords: site, plurality, techniques, intersection

Applications are due by 12 April 2024. Please submit an abstract of no more than 350 words using the conference paper template to jonathan.laskovskyunimelb.edu.au

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T2DsWUjHREVL6Ub9534k5b3iiIqsJYDo/edit

This event will be held in person at the University of Melbourne on 18-19 July 2024.

Contact: Jonathan Laskovsky (jonathan.laskovskyunimelb.edu.au)

https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/school-of-culture-and-communication/our-research/groups-and-resource-centre/critical-research-association-melbourne/events/events-calendars/cfp-borders-as-both-site-and-method-conference?nocache=1