Conversation and Commentary : Feminist Border Theories – Expanding our Perspectives

Lisa Flores starts the conversation with an introductory description of the context of the discussion. Against the backdrop of family separation and violence at the US-Mexican border in 2018, she calls for a feminist approach to study the complexities of borders (p. 113). Therefore, she invited five feminist scholars to join her in the forum discussion (p. 114).

In the following first commentary, Minu Baset reflects on the connections of borders and domestic workers in the US of whom 46% where born outside the US, making domestic work very rightfully a border issue (p. 116). She especially focusses on the in/visible borders that inspire domestic workers to mobilize in movements and to “build alliances across differences” (ibid.). On the topic of gender, Basnet stresses the importance of, what she calls, “feminist border rhetorics” -  a critical lens exploring the intertwining of gender and other inequalities, such as nation or labor that produce those bordered experiences of domestic workers (p. 117). Basnet shows that domestic workers’ movements are able to employ a feminist border rhetorics that bridges differences through solidarity and that “takes into account the ways in which gender is entangled with other inequalities” (p. 119). She underlines that “rhetorical agency is important to counter stereotypes stemming from their in/visible borders” (p. 118). She concludes that beyond the U.S.–Mexico border there are other borders that are intricately tied to “masked exclusions” (p.119).

In the second comment Stacey Sowards supports her stance on borders as possible spaces of interaction and new ways of thinking with several feminist theories, such as Chela Sandoval’s concept of “differential consciousness”, or Sara Ahmed’s “willful bumping” (p. 120). „Differential consciousness and willful bumping, then, define differential bordering through feminist resistive approaches that engage difference to explore new ways of thinking, being, and acting in the world that often come from lived experiences, like those who live on the border.“ (ibid.). Sowards illustrates differential consciousness and willful bumping in relation to three examples of how place/s, difference/s and language/s influence borders and border feminist theories (ibid.).

The forth commentary by Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager shifts the geographical focus from the US to Italy. The author critically reflects on Salvini’s policy making and how it influences the new border culture currently establishing in Italy, but also in Europe. Salvini draws a rhetorical border not only between Italians and the rest of Europe (the world), but also within the country, among Italians, somehow creating a hierarchy of identity, devaluing and marginalizing those who do not fit into the traditional value system and characteristics he associates with being Italian, namely “catholic, patriarchic, heterosexual” (p. 125ff). This creates borders between those who abide by these values and those who don’t, between North and South, and especially between Italians and immigrants (p. 127). This practice of Intersectional Othering and Salvini’s patriarchic, xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynist ideologies create not only borders of race, class or gender, but of humanity (p. 127).

In the fifth commentary, Leandra Hinojosa Hernández deals with the topic of family separation and reproductive violence at the US-Mexico border. With the implementation of Trumps “zero-tolerance” policy towards immigrants in 2018, came the systematic separation of families leaving 13,000 children, separated from their parents or guardians by federal authorities at the border (p. 130). Hernández interprets the separation as “a form of gendered reproductive violence”. She offers a conjuncture of feminist and border theories to approach these migrant human rights violations (ibid.). By referring to intersectionality and reproductive justice as theoretical frameworks, it becomes more visible how intertwined structures such as “politics, government actions and policies, and national and international conflicts” are and how all of these factors affect migrant women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive rights (p. 131).

The last commentary by Sarah De Los Santos Upton explores the “in-between-spaces” of “Borderlands” with a “Chicana feminist theoretical perspective” (p. 135). With reference to Gloria Anzaldúa’s seminal work, the author understands borderlands as spaces that represent and reproduce the ongoing inner rift of being torn between two cultures, experienced by many individuals on or near the border. On the other hand, borderlands hold great potential for change and progress (ibid.). Los Santos Upton uses the concept of “Nepantla” the “in-between space” where border identities are “questioned, broken down, and eventually rebuilt” (p. 136). An important notion of Nepantla is coalition making. People with different identities come together in an act of solidarity when finding a thematic intersection, as the case of queer migration politics illustrate, where LGBTQ- and migrant politics coalesce (p. 137). The author especially stresses Neplantera activism as a strong form of coalition making across borders (p. 138).