Join us Friday, May 15th, for a BIG_Lab Coffee Talk with Dr. Bobbie Chew Bigby, PhD, who brings a unique comparative perspective on Indigenous tourism models across Australia and the United States.

Event Details: Friday, May 15th | 10:00 - 11:30 AM PST In person at UVic (Sedgewick C179) or online via Zoom

In "When the World Closed Its Doors: The COVID-19 Tragedy and the Future of Borders," Edward Alden (Council on Foreign Relations) and Laurie Trautman (Border Policy Research Institute, Western Washington University) explore how pandemic-era border closures reshaped state policy in ways that continue to affect people today, and what that means for the future of borders worldwide.

In Somatic States, Franck Billé explores the conceptual link between the nation-state and the human body, arguing that corporeal analogies to national territory are not merely poetic but reflect a genuine identification between individual bodies and national borders — one made possible by the rise of the political map.

Drawing on the history of cartographic practice, Billé shows how states mobilize bodily metaphors to make territorial claims legible and emotionally resonant, from framing border changes as dismemberment to using the national outline as a stand-in for collective identity. In an era of complex geopolitics and neoliberalism, he demonstrates that these corporeal framings retain their power precisely because they offer an intuitive way to grasp something as abstract as the nation-state.

with Madagascar Customs Director General Zafivanona Lainkana

with Altana AI Co-Founder and CSO Peter Swartz

Recording available!

with Emeritus Professor of Comparative African History and Borderlands Studies Anthony Asiwaju (University of Lagos)

Recording available!