Thinking the Border Otherwise: Survival and Solidarity

Nivi Manchanda (Queen Mary University, London), Discussant: Rahul Rao

This talk addresses the question of whether, and in what ways, the border matters beyond its physical infrastructure by excavating the foundational political thought of Gloria Anzaldua, Temsula Ao, Jean Genet, and Huey Newton.

Abstract

This talk addresses the question of whether, and in what ways, the border matters beyond its physical infrastructure by excavating the foundational political thought of Gloria Anzaldua, Temsula Ao, Jean Genet, and Huey Newton. Traversing multiple continents and socio-political contexts, these mid-20th century figures are all renowned for their political activism and literary scholarship. Yet, although they have also theorised the border, in politically creative ways that are salient far beyond their immediate contexts, this aspect of their work remains surprisingly understudied. Together they can help address the question of the significance of the border beyond its physical manifestation on the ground. Positing very different, but consistently unflinching engagements with the border, they provide fresh perspectives on the adjacent, and sometimes co-constitutive, issues of transgression, fugitivity, and belonging. Specifically, putting their meditations on questions of survival, solidarity, and resistance in conversation with each other, the talk seeks to re-think these categories in relation to borders and borderzones.

Bio

Nivi Manchanda is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Queen Mary University of London. She is the author of Imagining Afghanistan: the History and Politics of Imperial Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 2020). She has recently published in Security Dialogue, Review of International Political Economy, and Critical Sociology. She is currently editor in chief of the journal Politics and co-convenor of the British Studies Association's Colonial Decolonial and Postcolonial (CPD) working group.

Join the webinar on Google Meet at meet.google.com/rnf-zobs-bco