This book brings an intersectional perspective to border studies, drawing on case studies from across the world to consider the ways in which notably gender and race dynamics change the ways in which people cross international borders, and how diffuse and virtual borders impact on migrants' experiences.By bringing together 11 ethnographies, the book demonstrates the necessity for in-depth empirical research to understand the class, gender and race inequalities that shape contemporary borders. In doing so the volume sheds light on how migration control produces gendered violence at physical borders but also through the politics of vulnerability across borders and social boundaries. It places embodied narratives at the heart of the analysis which sheds light on the agency and the many patterns of resistance of migrants themselves. As such, it will appeal to scholars of migration and diaspora studies with interests in gender.

The study of borders has recently undergone significant transitions, reflecting the transformation of the world political map as well as the changes in the ways boundaries themselves function. In Gendering Border Studies sixteen established scholars from a variety of disciplines examine how the issue of gender and borders has been approached in their field and describe what they expect from future research. This book will be of interest to scholars of border studies, gender studies, social anthropology, international politics, comparative literature, and Welsh studies.

Borders, Histories, Existences: Gender and Beyond contends that borders are, by definition, lines of inclusion and exclusion established by the state. It analyses how states construct borders and try to make them static and rigid and how bordered existences, such as women, migrant workers and victims of human trafficking, destabilise the rigid constructs. It explores the political conditions that have made borders problematic in post-colonial South Asia and how these borders have become regions of extreme control or violence.

The study of borders has recently undergone significant transitions, reflecting changes in the functions of boundaries themselves, as the world political map has experienced transformations. Gender (defined as the knowledge about perceived distinctions between the sexes) is an important signifier of borders as constructed and contested lines of differences. In the interplay with other categories of difference like class, race, ethnicity, and religion, it plays a major role in giving meaning to different forms of borders. It is not surprising, then, that an increasing number of studies in the last years have aimed for a gendering of border studies. This book explores this new interdisciplinary field and develops it further. The main questions it asks are: How do we define 'borders', 'frontiers' and 'boundaries' in different disciplinary approaches of gendered border studies? What were and are the main fields of gendered border studies in different fields? What might be important questions for future research? And how useful is an inter- or transdisciplinary approach for gendered border studies? Sixteen established scholars from various disciplines contribute chapters in which they set out how the issue of gender and borders has been approached in their discipline and describe what they expect from future research.

This book brings an intersectional perspective to border studies, drawing on case studies from across the world to consider the ways in which notably gender and race dynamics change the ways in which people cross international borders, and how diffuse and virtual borders impact on migrants' experiences. By bringing together 11 ethnographies, the book demonstrates the necessity for in-depth empirical research to understand the class, gender and race inequalities that shape contemporary borders. In doing so the volume sheds light on how migration control produces gendered violence at physical borders but also through the politics of vulnerability across borders and social boundaries. It places embodied narratives at the heart of the analysis which sheds light on the agency and the many patterns of resistance of migrants themselves. As such, it will appeal to scholars of migration and diaspora studies with interests in gender.

Women at the Border analyzes border policing practices currently informed by paradigms of securitization against unauthorized mobility and explores the potential for a paradigm shift to a more ethical regulation of borders. By focusing on the ways women have sought to cross borders in ‘extra’-legal fashion, the book shows how border enforcement differentially impacts on some populations and makes the case that unauthorized migration requires management rather than repulsion and criminalization. When facing the emerging and future challenges of unauthorized mobility, border policing must be recast as a function of human rights that results in greater human security at the border. Examining gender and border policing across Europe, North America and Australia, this book enhances our understanding of the gendered determinants of ‘extra’-legal border crossing, border policing and the changing dynamics of unauthorized mobility.

In this study of sex, gender, sexual violence, and power along the border, Bernadine Marie Hernandez brings to light under-heard stories of women who lived in a critical era of American history. Elaborating on the concept of sexual capital, she uses little-known newspapers and periodicals, letters, testimonios, court cases, short stories, and photographs to reveal how sex, violence, and capital conspired to govern not only women's bodies but their role in the changing American Southwest. Hernandez focuses on a time when the borderlands saw a rapid influx of white settlers who encountered elite landholding Californios, Hispanos, and Tejanos. Sex was inseparable from power in the borderlands, and women were integral to the stabilization of that power. In drawing these stories from the archive, Hernandez illuminates contemporary ideas of sexuality through the lens of the borderland's history of expansionist, violent, and gendered conquest. By extension, Hernandez argues that Mexicana, Nuevomexicana, Californiana, and Tejana women were key actors in the formation of the western United States, even as they are too often erased from the region's story.