April 29, 2021

Guest lecture. Europe and its Borders: Between National Sovereignty and (im)mobility Policies. The cases of Ceuta and Melilla.

On 29th April 2021, Silvia Almenara Niebla gave a guest lecture to the students of the MSc in Communication Studies “New Media and Society in Europe” at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel as part of their course on "Media, Culture and Globalization Theories", coordinated by Jan Loisen and Yazan Bandran, whose aim is to provide students critical discussion on globalization through different perspectives in the field of media, culture and globalization illustrated via concrete cases.

During her lecture, Silvia explored the role of borders in the creation of migration policies in Europe through historical (from the Westphalian model of the state to the current European Union) and epistemological perspectives (from macro analysis involved in political science and international relations to micro analysis of anthropology and cultural studies). These two approaches have allowed to understand the role of borders from the logics of the nation-states to a perspective that goes beyond methodological nationalism. Through the particular case of Ceuta and Melilla, Silvia showed the changes that have been developed in migration policies in these border zones, as well as daily life in these areas, consolidating the idea of "Fortress Europe".

The session took place online on the Teams platform at 10h CET.

Reel Borders studies how borders are imagined through film

Guest lecture. Europe and its Borders: Between National Sovereignty and (im)mobility Policies. The cases of Ceuta and Melilla.