Borders Research Initiative

What is citizenship and how is it affected by race and gender? How have concepts of identity evolved over time? and What role do race and gender play in contemporary border conflicts? These are among the central questions motivating the launch of The Borders Research Initiative in Women’s and Gender Studies at MIT.

The Borders Research Initiative in Women and Gender Studies at MIT brings together an interdisciplinary group of MIT faculty in the humanities, arts and social sciences as well as experts from outside the academy (including lawyers, activists, and artists) in order to examine issues of border-crossing and citizenship, especially as they intersect with gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class and religion. The initiative seeks to understand national borders and border crossings in historical perspective, in order to explore how concepts of citizenship, identity, gender and race have evolved over time, and to gain clarity on the contemporary manifestations of these issues.

The initiative, which grew out of a regular series of intellectual forums held within MIT’s Program in Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) and the Center for Bilingual/Bicultural Studies, is a major new research, teaching, and community engagement initiative hosted by WGS and open to everyone in the MIT community.