10 years of Border Studies in the Greater Region
The UniGR-CBS celebrates a decade of Border Studies and invites you to explore the significant contributions of the first Interdisciplinary Center of Expertise of the University of the Greater Region. This section aims to highlight a decade of research and cross-border cooperation that have enhanced the understanding of borders in the Greater Region and beyond.
The UniGR-CBS looks back on ten years of interdisciplinary border research and thanks all those involved for their commitment and achievements.
Over 250 border scholars from around the world met in Eilat, Israel, from February 13-18, 2023. There, the third World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies.
The Interreg VA GR project "European Center for Competence and Knowledge in Border Studies" came to an end on June 30, 2022. With the support of the six partner universities during the four and a half years (2018-2022) of the project, the foundations for successful border studies have been created in the Greater Region.
The UniGR-CBS was awarded the Interregional Research Award of the Greater Region on November 25, 2022. The award honours the exceptional achievements of researchers in cross-border research cooperation.
On September 29, the presidents and rectors of the member universities of UniGR permanently established the first Interdisciplinary Center of Expertise of the UniGR in the field of Border Studies, the UniGR-Center for Border Studies.
Borders are once again facing a new attention. This development in society and politics was the focus of the international conference "Border Renaissance" on February 4 and 5, 2022. The event of border scholars from the Greater Region focused on the new importance of borders in European border regions and on a global level.
The UniGR-Guest Professorship Border Studies supports the short-term mobility of professors and post-doc researchers to the six UniGR partner universities.
The UniGR-CBS network has received additional funding of around 570,000 EUR for the project “European Center for Competence and Knowledge in Border Studies”.
The Covid-19 pandemic led to massive and abrupt border closures. Especially the Greater Region with its close interconnections was affected: students, cross-border workers, families or other commuters at the border experienced the separation as a significant cut in their professional and everyday life.
Six Border scholars coming from the six UniGR-CBS sites developed new projects and workshops as part of an interregional short-term mobility.
After a careful preparation, the trilingual UniGR-CBS portal was launched online. It offers a wide range of information and services for border scholars and is technically managed by the Université de Lorraine.
The UniGR-CBS was a partner of second Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) World Conference. The 5-day event on the theme "Border-Making and its Consequences" was held from 10-14 July 2018 at the University of Vienna (AT) and the Central European University in Budapest (H) and was attended by 450 border researchers from over 50 countries.
The project “UniGR-Center for Border Studies” was presented for the first time to the public at the University of Luxembourg on 24 October 2018. The project is funded by the INTERREG VA Greater Region program with €2M ERDF until 2020.
The Master in Border Studies is a two-year joint international study programme, which addresses the complex economic, political, social and cultural issues of borders and of border regions in Europe and beyond.
The Europe Conference 2016 of the ABS was organised from 4-7 October 2016 by the University of Luxembourg in cooperation with the UniGR-Center for Border Studies.
The UniGR-CBS working groups address cross-border issues falling within the thematic areas of the Interdisciplinary Center of Expertise.
On February 20, 2015, the steering board of the UniGR-CBS met for its first constituent meeting. The board consists of two academic representatives from each partner university and representatives from the UniGR.
After preparatory workshops and with the political support of the UniGR, the UniGR-CBS was launched by border researchers from the Greater Region. This laid the foundation for a successful research cooperation that is still unique in its field today.
