Borders in East and West

How we define border studies is transforming from focussing on “a line in the sand” to the more complex notions of how constituting a border is practiced, sustained and modified. In the expansion of borders studies, the areas explored across Europe and Asia have been numerous, but the specific themes that arise through comparative case studies are novel when approach Europe and Asian borderlands. Comparing the border experiences in East Asia and Europe in a number of thematic clusters ranging from economics, tourism, and food production to ethnicity, migration and conquest, Borders in East and West aims to decenter border studies from its current focus on the Americas and Europe.

Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and director of the Institute for social movements at Ruhr Universitaet Bochum in Germany. He is also Executive Chair of the Foundation History of the Ruhr, and an  Honorary Professor at Cardiff University. Before 2011 he Held Various Positions at British Universities, including Professor of Modern German and Comparative European History at the University of Manchester and Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Glamorgan. Among his Books are The Past as History: National Identity and Historical Consciousness in Modern Europe (2015) and Friendly Enemies: Britain and the GDR, 1949 – 1989 (2010).