The Challenges of Social Science Research on Borders and Borderlands’ 

Call for proposals by Centre for Studies on Borders and Movements, Kolkata

Workshop on

‘The Challenges of Social Science Research on Borders and Borderlands’

5-6 December, 2025

Conducting social science research on borders and borderlands is fraught with unique and significant challenges. These spaces are often politically sensitive, geographically remote, and socially complex, making them difficult to access, navigate, and analyse. International borders between nation states as well as state-borders between provinces are usually spaces of immense complexity. They may be characterized by porosity, shared languages and cultures, and deeply intertwined histories. At the same time, they are sometimes also sites of intense state control, ongoing political tensions, and significant socio-economic disparities. The difficulties are similar for research on non-geographical borderlands, such as the margins of gender and sexual identities, linguistic and regional identities, caste and class identities, provincial and urban identities, human and non-human identities and other borders. Here too, as Homi Bhabha asserts, the hybrid and in-between spaces at the margins are beyond simplistic binary oppositions. Research in these regions is critical for understanding the dynamics of identity, migration, nation-building and security in South Asia. However, the very nature of these borderlands presents a unique set of challenges for social science researchers.

This colloquium invites submissions that critically engage with the problems of conducting social science research on the border, borderlands, and its border-landers. We seek papers that go beyond empirical findings to reflect on the methodological, ethical, and theoretical dilemmas faced in the field. We encourage theoretical and empirical papers submissions from a range of disciplines, including but not limited to anthropology, culture studies, geography, history, political science and sociology.

We are particularly interested in papers that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Methodological Challenges:

Papers could explore the difficulties of data collection, including access to archives, conducting interviews, and engaging in ethnographic fieldwork in politically sensitive zones. We welcome contributions on innovative research methods that have been developed to overcome these obstacles.

• Ethical Dilemmas: 

The ethical considerations of working with marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as refugees, border residents, and victims of violence. We encourage papers that discuss the ethical responsibilities of researchers, including issues of consent, anonymity, and the potential for harm.

• Political and Logistical Barriers:

The role of state and non-state actors in controlling access to border regions/identities is a major hurdle. We are interested in papers that analyse the challenges posed by bureaucracy, surveillance, security forces, and local power structures.

• Theoretical and Conceptual Issues:

The very concepts of "border", "borderland", and “border-landers” are complex and contested. Connected with borders, in the case of identities, is the concept of ‘passing’. Papers could explore how these concepts are understood and experienced differently by various communities and how these understandings impact research design and interpretation.

• Comparative Perspectives: We encourage papers that draw comparisons between diverse facets of identity, regional, national or international borders to highlight similarities and differences in the challenges faced by researchers.
  
  

Minimum eligibility for applicants: Possessing an M.A. or M. Sc. Degree.

• 
  Abstracts: Please submit a 300-word abstract outlining your research area, research question, methodology, key findings, and relevance to the theme. The deadline for abstract submission is September 30, 2025. The abstract will be part of the google form.
  

• Full Papers: Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a draft working paper of 6,000-8,000 words. The deadline for a working paper submission is November 30, 2026.
  

• All submissions will be through this google form link:
  

• https://forms.gle/54tavAnjMH2DaXww6
  

• Any enquiry should be sent to csbmovements@gmail.com with the subject line "CFP: Borderlands Research."
  
  

Fees for the workshop: INR 800/- for students, INR 1200/- for research scholars with fellowships. The money is to be paid later ONLY if your proposal is selected.

This workshop aims to foster a dialogue among scholars and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of conducting social science research in these critical border regions. We look forward to your contributions.