Entangled Histories: Borders and Cultural Encounters Across Time and Space is an interdisciplinary seminar series that explores borders not merely as fixed lines of separation, but as dynamic spaces of interaction, negotiation, and cultural creativity. Spanning from the prehistoric, through the ancient and the medieval worlds to the contemporary era, the series brings together perspectives from history, literature, religious studies, linguistics, media studies, anthropology, and cultural studies to examine how borders shape—and are shaped by—human experience.
Building on its inaugural edition on "Borders and Cultural Encounters" (2025-2026), the 2026–2027 academic year adopts the special focus "Borders and Sustainability", expanding the conversation to the environmental, ecological, and more-than-human dimensions of bordering practices across time and space.
The seminars investigate borders in their multiple dimensions: geographical and political frontiers, linguistic and epistemological boundaries, cultural margins, religious thresholds, and symbolic, imagined, or ecological borderlands. Topics range from medieval riddles, cartography, and frontier landscapes to modern and contemporary issues such as migration, cinema, translation, multilingualism, decolonisation, cultural memory, resource management, and transnational networks. Particular attention is paid to moments of encounter—where traditions meet, conflict, merge, or transform—and to voices, practices, and forms of knowledge that emerge from marginal or liminal spaces.
The series' creators choose borders as the central theme because they share a conviction that borders are among the most productive analytical tools for understanding both past and present societies. Rather than viewing borders solely as sites of exclusion or division, the series approaches them as zones of contact that generate hybrid identities, new forms of knowledge, and alternative narratives. In an era marked by renewed debates on migration, nationalism, environmental crises, and global interconnectedness, the concept of borders offers a crucial lens through which long-term historical processes can be connected to urgent contemporary questions.
By adopting a long chronological perspective, the seminar series highlights continuities and ruptures in the ways borders have been imagined, experienced, and contested over time. This diachronic approach allows participants to reflect on how historical forms of bordering continue to inform modern cultural, political, and intellectual frameworks, and how past encounters can illuminate present challenges.
The 2026–2027 cycle runs from October 2026 to June 2027, with regular weekly meetings on Thursdays at 6:00 pm (CEST). Conceived as an open and inclusive academic space, the series aims to foster dialogue across disciplines, periods, and methodological approaches, encouraging participants to rethink borders not as peripheral phenomena, but as central to the study of culture, history, and society.