Borders—and border crossings—have seen increasing scrutiny as immigration has become a highly politicized topic across contexts. As such, border security measures have intensified across the board, monitoring people and goods as they cross international boundaries. In this lecture, Nandini Dey will discuss the historical evolution of some of these border security and migration control practices, focusing on how the British Empire in South Asia managed mobility within and across its boundaries and how these practices inform the contemporary mobility regime. Through this lens, she will focus on how threats are constructed and how security measures are heightened in response, and specifically highlight how these measures are not simply a product of contemporary times but rather a continuation of imperial practices.

Nandini Dey is a CED Postdoctoral Fellow for 2023–2025. Her research interests include borders, migration, security, empire, and citizenship. She received her PhD in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University in 2023. Her research has been funded by the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant along with other fellowships. She has taught classes in International Relations, Comparative Politics, and on Migration and Citizenship. She is currently an elected member of the Executive Committee of APSA’s Migration and Citizenship Section.

As a Center for Emerging Democracies Postdoctoral Fellow, Nandini is continuing work on her book manuscript and on expanding her research on imperial and post-imperial migration controls and regulations of citizenship. In addition, she is working on new projects that include researching international aviation security and how borders are conceptualised and incorporated in climate change policies.

Zoom webinar link: https://myumi.ch/9gM9n

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