Borders Talk: Dots, Dashes & the Stories They Tell
Hosted by Border Studies academics Zalfa Feghali and Gillian Roberts, this podcast explores border depictions and encounters in our contemporary world.
Zalfa, Gillian, and their guests discuss borders, their cultural manifestations, and their implications. In their aim to make the academic field of border studies accessible to non-specialist audiences, they ask questions like: “What do borders look like?”, “How are borders used and mobilised in our everyday lives?”, and “What different borders can be known?”
To answer these questions, they consider current events, personal stories, and specialist academic texts, as well as exploring and reflecting on “classic” texts of Border Studies.
- Update frequency
- every 22 days
- Average duration
- 42 minutes
- Episodes
- 11
- Years Active
- 2024 - 2025
Borders and Hospitality
Special thanks to our guest speakers, whose border stories we gratefully share with their consent: Jenneba Sie-Jallok, Loraine Masiya Mponela, Ambreen Hai, and Gaura Narayan.
Gillian…
Borders and Vulnerability
The Urban Dictionary’s definition of “tsunamied” is very much not what Zalfa intended. In fact, she had to look it up on reading this entry in the show notes, and wishes she had turn…
Borders and Speculative Fiction
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is available for purchase here, at your local independent bookstore, or check out your local library. It won the Booker Prize in 2023. (Read an article by …
We Need to Talk About Settler Colonialism with guests Emma Battell Lowman and Adam Barker
Content Note: This episode makes reference to the use of racist language/slurs.
This is what a walrus sounds like (righteousness unconfirmed).
“Columbus was a Dick” is a song by Prince…
Border Art with guest David Stirrup
David mentioned "pretendians," a term used to refer to individuals who falsely claim Indigenous heritage.
David mentioned work by Eric Gansworth (Onondaga). Read more about Gansworth’…
Borders and Language with guests Olivia Hellewell and Pierre-Alexis Mével
Liv is the translator of The Fig Tree by Goran Vojnović, which you can order directly from the publisher Istros Books, or via our friendly local Five Leaves Bookshop. She mentions Vo…
Reading and Rereading Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera with guest Stephanie Lewthwaite
Listeners who did not share Gillian’s TV viewing habits in the 1980s and ‘90s can find the Pace salsa ad here.
We make reference to not only Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera:…
Arriving at Arrival
Gillian saw Arrival at Broadway in Nottingham. Support your local independent cinema!
Arrival was adapted from Ted Chiang’s novella, “Story of Your Life," which appeared in his 2002 c…
Gender and Borderlands with guests Caleb Bailey and Deborah Toner
We Googled “Why are dates important in History,” but fear the results may not have been peer-reviewed.
For peer-reviewed sources on other matters:
- Information about the publication of…
Welcome: Connecting (Some) Dots
Gillian would like to state for the record that Zalfa is also the real deal.
In other matters:
What is the plural of “impetus”?
The answer, improbably, is impetuses!
https://www.oxfordre…
Borders Talk: Dots, Dashes & the Stories They Tell (trailer)
Hosted by Border Studies academics Zalfa Feghali and Gillian Roberts, this podcast will explore border depictions and encounters in our contemporary world.
Zalfa, Gillian, and their …