A SEMIANNUAL NEWSLETTER VOL. 35 · ISSUE 2 · SPRING 2015. La Frontera Association for Borderlands Studies Newsletter Published by the ABS Secretariat. Design and Coding © Copyright 2015 Highlights of This Issue Editor: Jussi Laine Message from the ABS Outreach CfP: II World Save the Date ABS Visioning Op-Eds President Mirza Zulfiqur Conference 2018 ABS 2016 European Committee Report This issues features President van der Velde Rahman & Kathleen The Executive Officers Conference: We wish to hear from numerous topical texts. recaps the past year and Staudt report on the and the ABS Board Differences and you before or at the Read what G. Correa- outlines the future ABS India Outreach invite interested Discontinuities in a ABS meeting in Cabrera, S. Sengupta, V. developments for the Workshop on Border institutions to submit ‘Europe without Portland! ABS Konrad, D. Stea & A. association. Studies in Northeast proposals to organize Borders’ 4–7 October Visioning Plenary Chung have to say! India. the next ABS World 2016, Luxembourg. Session: Saturday Page 1 Conference. April 11, 2:45-4:15pm. Pages 14-22 Pages 3-5 Page 7 Page 9 Page 12 meeting. It will surely be the start of another the executive secretary and treasurer and the MESSAGE FROM THE great ABS tradition. During the meeting in Joensuu team. The past year has shown that the PRESIDENT Portland we will discuss the location of the next association is in capable hands. Emmanuel meeting in 2018. Brunet Jailly and his team continue to be of great Dear ABS colleagues, importance as editors of the JBS. And of course Furthermore early March a delegation of ABS- we have to thank all the members of the different Welcome to members together with local participants nominating committees. As these kinds of efforts Portland, “City of gathered in the Northeast of India and Delhi, for are making the association what it is now I would Roses”, brewpubs the first regional ABS-meeting in India. The ABS like to encourage you to consider participating in and good coffee. A has to thank the local organisers, and in these committees or engage actively with the ABS truly nice place to particular Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman and in other ways. hold our yearly Krisnendra Meena, for their efforts to make this a legacy meeting. First success. Like last year I would like to emphasise that the of all we have to future of the ABS is depending very much on For the near future plans are being developed for thank Akihiro involving and engaging students to present and an ABS-meeting in Mexican-Guatemalan border Iwashita for offering be present at the ABS and participate in the work region. And the next ABS-Europe meeting will us another exciting of the association. Please encourage all of your be organized in the fall of 2016 in Luxemburg. program. Yet another students in border studies to get involved in the Slowly the ABS develops into the global player it year we have to say that this might be one of ABS. the best ever meetings. The program is wants to be. As I will pass on the presidency to Akihiro available on the web site. Being the Another important on-going issue is the revision Iwashita during this meeting I would like to wish program-chair and president-elect Akihiro of our bylaws to accommodate the growth of the him all the success he needs for the coming year. will probably point us at some of the ABS both in members as well as geographically. Knowing his engagement with the ABS and outstanding aspects of the program. What I Christopher Brown is chairing the committee border studies, I am sure that the coming year would like to mention already is the plenary dealing that took on this task. He will report on will be another successful one for our session in which we will honour Ellwyn the progress in the Board and Business Meeting Stoddard with the ABS Lifetime organization. Achievement Award. As one of the founders During the meeting and linked to this we will of the ABS he has been instrumental for our also continue our discussion on the future of our With the warmest regards beloved organization and it is great that he association. I would like to invite you all to join will able to join us and share some thoughts the plenary roundtable discussion on Saturday, on the history of the ABS. where amongst other things also the visioning committee headed by Victor Konrad will report This year has been a year of further global on their activities. outreach of the ABS. June last year we gathered in Joensuu and St. Petersburg for the first ever A word of thanks of course has to be extended to ABS-World Meeting. With 450 participants from all executive and board members for their efforts Martin van der Velde, President over 60 countries it has been a true global this year. A special thanks goes to Jussi Laine as ABS Executive Secretariat - Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland - PO Box 111 - FI-80101 - Joensuu, Finland "1 LA FRONTERA 35(2) ABS/57th WSSA Annual Conference April 8-11, 2015 - Portland, Oregon MESSAGE FROM THE breadth and depth of knowledge place where you can enjoy a talk of the ABS over nice food and PROGRAM CHAIR and expertise in the ABS. This on the book “Borders” with its drink. year we have a particularly author, as well as a documentary diverse mix, including panels on Japan’s maritime borders. On Finally, I fully express my and papers drawing out Thursday afternoon, Ellwyn gratitude to the ABS program functional and theoretical Stoddard, Professor Emeritus of Advisory Committee members, innovations that have Sociology and Anthropology at secretaries, and all those who application beyond specific area- the University of Texas El Paso, have supported this meeting. based research. We also maintain will receive an ABS Lifetime Thank you. the rich tradition of the ABS- Achievement Award and will I look forward to seeing you in meeting, with a wealth of in- give a talk on the “The Portland! depth area-studies centered Multidisciplinary ABS: research, including many Reminiscences of a Borderline fascinating papers on the latest Scholar.” On Friday afternoon, a Akihiro Iwashita Dear ABS Colleagues, research from the US-Mexico special panel has been arranged borderlands. In addition, the on Borders, Walls, and President Elect and 2015 ABS We are gathering in Portland for coming meeting involves many Resistance. Saturday afternoon Program Chair the next ABS-meeting and this colleagues from Asia, showing will see us continue the dialogue year our theme is “Border how researchers from further of the ABS Visioning Committee Hokkaido University, Japan Studies and the New World afield are increasingly under Martin van der Velde, (Dis)order: Relating Theories contributing to the next where all ABS members are and Practice.” We have 53 generation of the ABS welcome to join and speak freely. panels confirmed and you can community. All of the members are also already view the program on our encouraged to join three, FREE ABS website: http:// Aside from the regular sessions, receptions (sponsored by the several special and plenary absborderlands.org/studies/ WSSA on Wednesday and annual-meetings/. I invite you to panels have been scheduled. On Saturday, and organized by the browse the program and choose Thursday and Saturday, Brown ABS on Friday), where we will your panel from an impressive Bag lunch meetings will take enjoy discussing the future plans "2 ABS Executive Secretariat - Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland - PO Box 111 - FI-80101 - Joensuu, Finland LA FRONTERA 35(2) There are Many Indias (and Many Borders): A Call for Collaborations and Comparative Research — Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman & Kathleen Staudt From March 1-5, 2015, the Institute of Chinese Studies (Delhi) and the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) co-sponsored an international workshop in far Northeast India, beginning in Guwahati, Assam, entitled “Living between the Rolling Hills and the High Himalayas: Understanding Borders and Spaces in Northeast India.” After interactions with presenters on five panels on March 2, the entire group traveled through Shillong in the province of Meghalaya to Dawki, at the border with Tamabil, Bangladesh. The road leading to Dawki is one of the most beautiful hill roads in this part of the world, but as one approaches the border, one can spot hundreds electoral victory of the Bharatya Janata Party oriented temperature taking and surprised of diesel fuming trucks ferrying limestone, (BJP), India’s economic policies have more unannounced disinfection sprayed in coal and boulder stones, a major part of the vigorously embraced neoliberalism than what airplanes before landing in India to the cross-border trade between India and the Congress-led party pushed. Minimum expected hyper-security practices at airplanes Bangladesh. On March 5, participants wages range a ten-fold difference by state from that include universal pat-downs in gender- interacted at two half-day conferences in New the equivalence of US$2 to US$20 per day. separate lines (‘ladies’ and ‘gents’) plus the Delhi: the Centre for Policy Research, usual technological surveillance. Visitors also “Encountering Borders,” and the Centre for India, like the US, seems obsessed with noticed privatized securitization: hotels that International Politics at Jawaharlal Nehru ‘national security.’ Reece Jones (2012), in scanned passports and ran bomb-detection University (JNU), “Border Studies in India.” Border Walls, with comparative perspectives devices under vehicles upon entry; at Many fruitful discussions occurred that will (Israel-Palestine and U.S.-Mexico), analyzes shopping malls, car checks—trunk and hood likely move border theories and empirical India’s fences with various borders.