ABORNE - The African Borderlands Research Network

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For a more detailed introduction to ABORNE, click here.

The African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE) held its inaugural meeting in Edinburgh in 2007.

ABORNE is an interdisciplinary network of researchers interested in all aspects of international borders and trans-boundary phenomena in Africa. The emphasis is largely on borderlands as physical spaces and social spheres, but the network is also concerned with regional flows of people and goods as well as economic and social processes that may be located at some distance from the geographical border.

ABORNE is primarily a forum for academic researchers aiming for a better understanding of African borderlands, but it also welcomes individual members and institutions whose work is of a more applied nature.

ABORNE aims to provide a lively platform for debate, the sharing of knowledge and the co-ordination of research activity, conferences and publications.

ABORNE seeks to integrate insights derived from different sub-fields of knowledge - including history, anthropology, sociology, political science, geography, development studies, migration studies and refugee studies- that have tended to produce a fractured body of knowledge about African borderlands.

ABORNE seeks to develop borderland studies as a sub-field in its own right and to promote research activity, including programmes of study at the postgraduate level.

ABORNE aims to provide a mechanism for promoting collaborative research and dissemination amongst researchers based in- and outside Africa.

ABORNE seeks to engage with scholars and policy-makers working on other parts of the world and to bring new insights to bear on borderlands studies in general, both at the conceptual and the empirical levels.

Since June 2009 ABORNE receives funding from the Research Networking Programme of the European Science Foundation. The funding is available for five years and used to finance scientific meetings (conferences, wokshops and summer schools), exchange grants for scholars visiting the hosting institution of the annual conference, publications, website maintenance, and the management of the network by a salaried coordinator. For information on the ESF programme, including guidelines and applications for funding, please check the ESF programme website as well.

On the 23rd of April 2011 ABORNE and the African Union Border Programme (AUBP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize their working relationship, which includes co-financing of ABORNE activities in order to enable participation by African scholars and continuous exchange on issues of scientific and policy relevance.

In 2009 ABORNE entered a formal agreement with Palgrave/ Macmillan to publish a  new book series on African borderlands. Both edited volumes and monographs are accepted. For further details, please have a look at the call for manuscripts.