Background
The project is funded by the AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship scheme and builds on research conducted into border areas of Italy and beyond. However, the relevance of the border extends beyond territorial, geopolitical understandings of boundedness. Drawing on scholarship ranging from Linguistic Landscape Studies through to Border Studies and ecolinguistic perspectives, this multidisciplinary project links different approaches to pervasive bordering practices that naturalise borders as an inherent quality of all that surrounds us. At a time when public debate is dominated by institutional discourses of exclusion affecting understandings of citizenship, national belonging and mobility, and when present conflicts are often a legacy of border-making practices rooted in ideologically weak persuasions, it is important to adopt a critical perspective towards, and denaturalise, borders.
Partnerships
The project will develop partnerships with both academic and non-academic partners. Academic partnerships include the international collaboration with DREAM (Donostia Research group on Education and Multilingualism, Basque Country), and non-academic partners include both local organisations in minoritized settings and secondary schools in the Liverpool area. Through a host of activities including outreach and public-facing events, the research seeks to transform and expand multidisciplinary scholarship on the border by exposing the normative power of border making and proposing novel perspectives that promote a view of borders as fluid and changeable spaces. Extending this debate through international collaborations, and incorporating it into educational curricula, the research will broaden its reach and transformative potential.
Activities
Our ongoing activities involve collecting data in secondary schools located in the Liverpool area, focusing on the construction and de-construction of the ideological human/non-human border within the schoolscape. Leveraging citizen science methods, we aim to contextualise the results by considering environmental identity and place belonging, providing insights into the multifaceted nature of borders as perceived in everyday school life. A parallel study is being conducted in Guardia Piemontese, an Occitan-speaking linguistic island in Calabria (Italy), where the teaching and learning of Occitan is integrated into the primary school curriculum. This comparative approach allows us to explore linguistic bordering practices across different cultural and educational contexts. Additionally, a series of workshops on language awareness is scheduled for Autumn 2024. The artefacts created by participants will be curated in a digital exhibition, culminating in a celebration in January 2025.
Toolkit for Schools
Our project aims to contribute to the enhancement of language teaching in the UK by developing a comprehensive toolkit for teachers. Drawing upon the results, consultations, and broader considerations from our research, this toolkit will be co-created with teachers, serving as a valuable resource to foster the incorporation of sociolinguistics into language teaching practices.
Publications
In addition to a monograph, and as part of our commitment to disseminate knowledge, we are working on a Special Issue that delves into bordering practices from diverse settings and multiple perspectives. This Special Issue is grounded in critical and decolonial approaches to bordering practices, challenging the naturalisation of boundaries in human experience. Our publication endeavours to contribute thought-provoking insights to the academic discourse on borders and their various manifestations.
Funding
The Borderscapes project is generously funded by the AHRC Research, Development, and Engagement Fellowship scheme.
More information
For more information follow @BorderscapesUoL
Research Team
Dr Jessica Hampton
PDRA