PERMEABLE BORDERS: History, Theory, Policy, and Practice in the United States

Nearly three years ago I joined Susanne Bertheir-Foglar of Université Grenoble Alpes in hosting the conference “Migrations and Borders in the United States: Discourses, Representations, Imaginary Contexts.” In September 2018, we published our first volume of selected papers under the same title. We’re pleased to announce the anticipated publication of the second volume, Permeable Borders: History, Theory, Policy, and Practice in the United States, in April 2019.

When the theme for the conference was first discussed in early 2015, national borders were becoming a topic of political discourse, but had not been politicized as they soon would be by Donald Trump with his promises to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Now, issues at the border, both north and south, are matters of humanitarian crisis (and not because of the supposed flood of undocumented border crossers, per Trump’s rhetoric). Although the essays in our volume address more topics than just national border policy, the book’s emphasis on porous borders, both past and present, both virtual and physical, is timely, to say the least.

Description:

If the frontier, in all its boundless possibility, was a central organizing metaphor for much of U.S. history, today it is arguably the border that best encapsulates the American experience, as xenophobia, economic inequality, and resurgent nationalism continue to fuel conditions of division and limitation. This boldly interdisciplinary volume explores the ways that historical and contemporary actors in the U.S. have crossed such borders—whether national, cultural, ethnic, racial, or conceptual. Together, these essays suggest new ways to understand borders while encouraging connection and exchange, even as social and political forces continue to try to draw lines around and between people.

Contents:

Introduction
Paul Otto and Susanne Berthier-Foglar

Part I: Historical Border Crossing: National, Ethnic, and Theoretical

Chapter 1. American Indians and U.S.–Canada Trans-Border Migration: Opportunity and Refuge
Roger L. Nichols

Chapter 2. Warped Mirrors: Shifting Representations and Asymmetrical Constructs on the Border(s) of the American Southwest
Jeffrey Swartwood

Chapter 3. “Dare to Dance Your Own Dance”: Transgressing Aesthetic Borders in Early Twentieth-Century American Theatrical Dance
Claudie Servian

Chapter 4. Border Work: The Migration of Los Angeles Japanese Americans from the Manzanar Relocation Center to Father Flanagan’s Boys Town during World War II
Heather Fryer

Chapter 5. From Geographical to Virtual Borders in New York City: From Little Italy to Chinatown
Marie-Christine Michaud

Part II: Permeability in Border and Migration Policy

Chapter 6. Realizing Government Ambitions: Policing Insiders and Outsiders
Jon Wiebel

Chapter 7. Detention for Deterrence? The Strategic Role of Private Facilities and Offshore Resources in U.S. Migration Management
Marietta Messmer

Part III: National Borders, Liminal Spaces, and Permeation

Chapter 8. Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora: Cross-border Relationships and Security Issues
Cléa Fortuné

Chapter 9. (Dis)continuities of the Border Spectacle: An Analysis of a Binational Park in San Diego, California
Marko Tocilovac

Chapter 10. A Durable Permeation: Imagination, Motion, and Differentiation at the Border between Canada and the United States
Victor Konrad

Afterword: Permeability and the Making and Unmaking of Borders
David C. Atkinson