Academic Year/course:
2020/21
3354 - Bachelor's degree programme in Global Studies
25880 - Borders Identities and Geopolitics
Información de la Guía Docente
Academic Course:
2020/21
Academic Center:
335 - Faculty of Humanities
Study:
3354 - Bachelor's degree programme in Global Studies
Subject:
25880 - Borders Identities and Geopolitics
Credits:
4.0
Course:
3
Teaching languages:
Theory: | Group 1: English |
Seminar: | Group 101: English |
| Group 102: English |
Teachers:
Xavier Ferrer Gallardo
Teaching Period:
First Quarter
Schedule:
Presentation
Borders, Identities and Geopolitics
Through the disciplinary lens of political geography, this course examines the changing role of territorial borders in the contemporary world. Particular attention is paid to the current global hardening of border controls vis-à-vis migration dynamics as well as to the proliferation of walls and fences aimed at selectively regulate human (and other types of cross-border) flows. The course has a strong focus on bordering dynamics in the European Union.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Analyze the complexity of bordering processes
- Interpret the global dimension of the political discourse on securitization
- Identify and compare different wall building processes
- Understand the global dimension of human flows and human interaction with borders/walls
- Discover diverse/divisive narratives about walls and borders
- Interpret the importance of walls/borders in shaping group identities
Prerequisites
Global Studies. 3rd year students
Contents
- Introduction to the course (via "Collaborate")
- Bordering and othering
- What is a border/borderland?
- The symbolic and physical bordering of Europe
- Violence, refugees and insecurity at the border/wall
- Refugee flows and internal rebordering of the EU
- Ceuta and Melilla case: the Morocco/EU wall
Teaching Methods
The course will be fully taught online and will be predominantly based on the discussion of compulsory readings. The course will combine online lectures and webinars.
Students will be asked to:
- write a research paper on a contemporary border conflict or bordering process (webinars)
- orally present the research paper (online)
- discuss (via webinars/collaborate) and write brief essays about the compulsory readings
- write a book review about a recent border related book
Detailed information will be provided via Aula Global and Online/Collaborate Sessions
Evaluation
- Research paper – 15%
- Oral -power point- presentation (online) – 10%
- Reading discussions (online)– 20%
- Final exam (online)– 40%
- Book Review - 10%
- Class Participation - 5%
Students who fail to obtain a final grade of 5 will be allowed to take a resit exam (and obtain a maximum of 70% per cent of the grade) . Students will only be allowed to take the resit exam if they have previously submitted the research paper.
Bibliography and information resources
- Diener A. and J. Hagen. Borders: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, 2012. pp. 1-18.
- Ferrer-Gallardo X and A. Albet-Mas. "EU-Limboscapes: Ceuta and the proliferation of migrant detention spaces across the European Union." European Urban and Regional Studies 23.3 (2016): 527-530.
- Jones R. Violent borders: Refugees and the right to move. Verso Books, 2016, pp. 1-47
- Longo M. The politics of borders: Sovereignty, security, and the citizen after 9/11. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- Van Houtum, Henk & Rodrigo Bueno Lacy (2020) The Autoimmunity of the EU’s Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper, Iron and Camp Borders, Geopolitics, 25:3, 706-733
- Van Houtum, H. and Van Naerssen, T. (2002), Bordering, Ordering and Othering. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 93: 125-136.