Justice, Borders, and Rights

Justice Border, Rights Stream Lead Dr Umut Erel's article 'Migrant Mothers: performing kin work and belonging across private and public boundaries' has been selected as one of the Families, Relationships and Societies' new Editors Choice articles as featured on Bristol University Press website As part of this collection the article is now available to download for free until 31 January 2020. @FRSjournal

The Justice, Borders and Rights research stream consists of a group of researchers from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds whose work grapples with some of the most salient and polarizing debates around borders. Our work interrogates the social, cultural and political repercussions of and knowledge production around border practices - issues are at the forefront of old and new debates about conflict and global inequalities. Our work is characterised by research partnerships, collaborations and knowledge exchange projects between academics, NGOs, INGOs, international media and cultural organisations, social welfare institutions, community organisations, legal professionals, policy makers, artists and politicians.

Justice, Borders and Rights video playlist

Justice, Borders, and Rights engages with struggles for inclusion, recognition and representation against a backdrop of the construction, reconstruction, deconstruction and transgression of borders. Our key focus is on borders, conceived of in their myriad symbolic and material varieties, and how they frame, shape and define people, institutions, communities and nations. Researchers also look at how people challenge borders and construct communities and bridges across borders, including through international cultural exchange, media and communication networks.

Researchers in the stream approach the following questions from different perspectives:

What are the connections between and across old and new boundaries and social divisions around race, gender, class, sexuality, language, culture and religion?
How are exclusions and belongings of citizens and non-citizens shaped, debated and contested and re-created?
What new methods, sites and practices are being created and mobilised for political, cultural and social participation and solidarity ?
What forms of activism and participation in and beyond the academy are contesting and changing borders of exclusion and discrimination?
What is the role of academic research and scholarship in contributing to and analysing borders and border-crossing practices at local and translocal, organisational and individual levels?
What and do theories of citizenship, justice, rights and governance contribute to the analysis of contemporary global/local politics and to imaginaries of alternatives and change?