In this opening session, current Boston University faculty engaged in research and teaching related to the topic of forced displacement convened to analyze and compare the contemporary EU and US border regimes and their externalization practices, including both the historical origins of those policies and their current trends. The aim of this initial seminar was to connect faculty across the disciplines already at work on these vital topics at Boston University, establish a baseline of shared definitions and understandings of externalization, share current projects, and chart potential paths for future cooperative academic endeavors at BU. The event began with a preliminary introduction of the scope and aims of the overarching seminar series by Principal Investigator Dr. Carrie Preston. The first talk, by Professors Kaija Schilde (International Relations) and Noora Lori (International Relations), provided a broad overview of the meaning, history, motivations, and mechanisms of border externalization, particularly in the European Union. The second presentation, from Isabella Trombetta (Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center on Forced Displacement), traced evolving practices of migrant interdiction and search and rescue operations at sea, particularly in the central Mediterranean. This was followed by Prof. Susan Akram’s (Law) talk on the legal history and standing of safe first and third country asylum agreements. Former Ambassador and Professor Mark Storella (Pardee) spoke fourth about the history of US refugee policy, and the contemporary use of bureaucratic measures to externalize borders. And Professor Jeffrey Rubin (History) concluded the seminar by projecting forward toward the hope and possibility of less violent and more porous borders, outlining the imaginative and discursive space that academics and practitioners concerned with forced displacement and current border externalization trends will need to fill in to make that hope a reality. The seminar concluded with a roundtable discussion amongst participants regarding potential future cooperative research and pedagogical projects.
Recording: