Belonging across Borders Transnational Practices in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Borders and belonging are of immense importance as borders are being (re)defined, strengthened, or weakened all around the globe. Brexit, the proposed wall between the USA and Mexico, the India-Pakistan border-the drawing of social and spatial boundaries is at the heart of many current debates, as is the question of what it means to 'belong' somewhere. Unlike the main body of literature, Belonging Across Borders argues that processes which occurred before and beyond the nation state also influence inclusion and exclusion. Focusing on practices and historical subjects, it re-evaluates historical sources and goes beyond the existing research to look at the interplay between different reference points (empire, nation, and region) and at individuals, exploring borders as both territorial and social boundaries. This approach is in line with recent calls to expand border studies by adding a historical perspective and using new methodologies and theories. Geographers and anthropologists have been studying this topic for decades and have produced a range of inspiring research. However, a more historical perspective is also needed: first, to emphasize the existence of different types of borders, bordering, and border actors through historical case studies; second, to underscore the historical specificity of border practices; and third, to highlight their dependence on historical contexts. Belonging Across Borders breaks new ground by applying the concept of belonging to historical studies on borders, empires, nations, and regions. It also links borders and belonging to individual historical actors and their practices, not just to institutions or social groups.

Levke Harders, University of Innsbruck,Falko Schnicke, Johannes Kepler University Linz

Dr Levke Harders is Professor of Gender History at the University of Innsbruck. She is currently working on a book project entitled Narratives of Foreignness and Belonging: Migration as a Discursive Process in Western European Border Regions (1815-1871) funded by the German Research Foundation. From
2008 to 2021 she worked at the University of Bielefeld. Dr Harders studied German literature, history, and gender studies, and in 2011 she obtained her Ph.D. with a dissertation on American studies. She has also published on the theory of biography and on gender history. Dr Harders writes about her
migration project and her other fields of research on her blog 'Migration and Belonging'.

Dr Falko Schnicke is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. He specializes in nineteenth and twentieth-century German, British, and international history and has published widely on these topics.

1. Practices of Borders and Belonging: Historical Perspectives, Levke Harders and Falko Schnicke
Border Practices and Local, Regional, and National Belongings
2. Processes of De-Territorialization and Re-Territorialization, and Practices of Place-Making and Belonging: The Red River Métis, Ursula Lehmkuhl
3. Imagining the Rhineland: Region and Nation Building in France and Germany, 1790-1840, Michael Rowe
4. Non-Nationals between Belonging and Removal: Urban Practices of Foreigners Policies, Antwerp c.1830-1880, Ellen Debackere and Anne Winter
5. The Region Matters: Governance and Border Practices in 1850s Alsace, Levke Harders
6. Making the French-German Border: Practices, Conceptions, and Perceptions of Spatial Policing, 1887-1914, Sarah Frenking
Belonging and Borders in Imperial and Post-Imperial Settings
7. When California was British: The American Pacific in the Mid-Victorian Political Imagination, Amanda Behm
8. Crossing the Line: Technological, Climatic, and Racial Border Crossings in the 1901 British Imperial Royal Tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, Cindy McCreery
9. Adapting to the Post-Colonial World: The Commonwealth and British Cold War Royal Diplomacy in the 1961 State Visits to India and Pakistan, Falko Schnicke
National Borders and Contested Belongings in Britain and the Commonwealth
10. Between Empire and Nation: British Nationality Law and the Politics of Belonging in Post-Imperial Britain, Almuth Ebke
11. Defining British Nationality in the Era of Decolonization, Philip Murphy
12. Thinking with Belonging and Unbelonging: Complexities and Translocations, Floya Anthias