WiSe 2025/26 Borders in Transition III

Projektwerkstatt WiSe 2025/26
Simten Önen, Ioanna Protopapadaki

Borders in Transition III

Borders in Transition is a student-led, peer-to-peer teaching project that explores the concept of borders through a spatial lens, researching the complex layers that configure border territories.

This semester, Borders in Transition will focus on how borders are internalized through spatial practices — in other words, how borders move from the periphery of state territories into their interiors in various forms. This internalization often takes shape through the creation of “islands” that govern the movement of specific groups across time and space. These can take the form of urban border infrastructures such as migrant detention centers, refugee camps, airports, and ports. They can also appear as fortified enclaves, internal displacement zones, or literal islands used as natural enclaves for the geographical containment of cross-border movement.

In this context, we will work in groups on three cases: an urban case in Germany, the border islands of the Aegean Sea in Greece, and the fragmented, shifting borderlands of Palestine. Together, these cases allow us to trace how borders are reproduced in different regional geographies — from urban infrastructures at the core of EU border governance, to island-enclaves at its external frontier, and to internal displacement zones shaped by long-standing conflict. We therefore aim to unpack the complexities of bordering practices while situating them within a broader global perspective.

The seminar is conducted in a block format and is based on horizontal, peer-to-peer feedback. The first part focuses on co-learning through readings, inputs, and discussions, while the second part is dedicated to group work and the presentation of small student research projects. Students will be able to choose one of the three cases as well as the specific focus of their projects. At the end of the semester, we will co-produce a collective outcome that brings together all student projects and reflects on the learnings across the cases studied.

Download poster here.