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I'm looking forward to teaching my graduate seminar in political geography again this spring. Here is a thread of the books we'll be reading on sovereignty, territory, and borders 1/15
I start my seminars with the same three books to destabilize the idea of the state, the nation, and territorial sovereignty. The first is The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott. It removes any notion that states are a sign of progress 2/15 https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300169171/art-not-being-governed
Next we'll read Thongchai Winichakul's Siam Mapped, which demolishes the idea that nations have existed for long historical periods. Instead, it demonstrates how maps and borders created the idea of a nation 3/15 https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/siam-mapped-a-history-of-the-geo-body-of-a-nation/
The third book that I always start my grad seminars with is Lauren Benton's A Search for Sovereignty, which shows that the imposition of the idea of sovereignty has always been partial, fractured, and contested 4/15 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/search-for-sovereignty/1FCB3767F56B64879CF13618A139866A
Then we'll read my book Violent Borders to tie together the key role borders play in protecting privileges and shaping the imaginary of the state, nation, and territory 5/15 https://www.versobooks.com/books/2516-violent-borders
The rest of the semester will be new books (2018-2021) that delve into borders and the state. Next will be Paulina Ochoa Espejo's On Borders, which theorizes borders by situating them in place and in the environment @POchoaEspejo 6/15 https://global.oup.com/academic/product/on-borders-9780190074203?lang=en&cc=us
Philippe Frowd's Security at the Borders looks at border work, security infrastructure, and biometric borders in Africa. @PhilippeMFrowd 7/15 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/security-at-the-borders/4F392EE06A6B27A2E531C388C86B73E6
Nanjala Nyabola's Traveling While Black is a set of essays about what it "feels like to move through a world designed to limit and exclude you." @Nanjala1 8/15 https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/travelling-while-black/
After spring break, we'll read Statelessness: A Modern History by Mira Siegelberg, which theorizes the new problem of not having a territorial identity @MiraSiegelberg 9/15 https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976313
I'm really excited to read Alison Mountz's new book The Death of Asylum: Hidden Geographies of the Enforcement Archipelago from @UMinnPress @AlisonMountz 10/15 https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-death-of-asylum
After a break for the AAG meeting, we'll read Sasha Davis' Islands and Oceans: Re-imagining Sovereignty and Social Change @DocSasha71 11/15 https://ugapress.org/book/9780820357355/islands-and-oceans/
The last book of the semester will be Adam Moore's Empire's Labor, which won the @theAAG's Globe Book Award this year @ConflictGeo 12/15 https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501742170/empires-labor/#bookTabs=1
I usually only read books in my seminars, but for the final week of the class I've included several articles about about race in geography and IR. We'll read @BlackGeographer's The White Unseen @GKBhambra et al's Why is Mainstream IR Blind to Racism and a piece on @E_IR 13/15
The links for those pieces are:
The White Unseen: On white supremacy and dangerous entanglements in Geography https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2043820620966489
Why is Mainstream IR blind to Racism: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/03/why-is-mainstream-international-relations-ir-blind-to-racism-colonialism/
Black History Month interviews on IR: https://www.e-ir.info/2019/10/31/black-history-month-interviews/
14/15
The White Unseen: On white supremacy and dangerous entanglements in Geography https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2043820620966489
Why is Mainstream IR blind to Racism: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/03/why-is-mainstream-international-relations-ir-blind-to-racism-colonialism/
Black History Month interviews on IR: https://www.e-ir.info/2019/10/31/black-history-month-interviews/
14/15
That is the plan for my Political Geography grad seminar this spring. There were a bunch of other books I wanted to include and a few that come out just a bit too late in the spring to assign. Those will have to wait until next time... 15/15
Here is what your spring looks like @gracechun_ @meaganharden_
