Book Launch: Border Lives and Works

An interdisciplinary, accessible study of Mexico–US and Serbia-EU border practices and policies that brings insights of critical border and forced displacement studies to examine histories, policies, violence, models of care, activism, and creativity within these border regimes.

Mexico–US, Serbia–EU Border Lives and Works pushes the boundaries of traditional border studies by incorporating perspectives beyond the humanities and social sciences, engaging engineers, public health scholars, humanitarian practitioners, human rights activists, and artists. Through accessible and interdisciplinary exploration, the book examines the Mexico–US and Serbia–EU border regimes, providing a nuanced understanding of these spaces as sources of inspiration, sites of research and ethical dilemmas, locations of service, and for many contributors, a place to call home. Across four sections, the edited volume fosters conversations that traverse disciplines while addressing conflicting perspectives on border-making, life at the border, and migration across borders.

About the Editors

Marina Lažetić is a scholar of forced displacement and border governance and the Director of Programs at the Center on Forced Displacement at Boston University. Her research examines civil society organizing in response to migration — including migrant solidarity and assistance initiatives, as well as anti-immigrant movements — alongside the politics of EU and US border regimes and climate- and environment-related displacement.

Dr. Carrie Preston is a professor in the English Department and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program. Her writing on gender, sexuality, race, performance, and critical displacement has appeared in three book and numerous articles. Her awards for teaching and research include the Methodist Scholar-Teacher of the Year and the Torre de la Bueno Award for a book in dance studies. Her most recent book, Complicit Participation: The Liberal Audience for Theater of Racial Justice, was published by Oxford UP in June 2024.

Dr. Muhammad Zaman is an HHMI professor of Biomedical Engineering and Global Health at Boston University. He received his master’s and P.h.D from the University of Chicago. In addition to five books and over 175 peer-reviewed research articles, Professor Zaman has written extensively on innovation, refugee and global health in newspapers around the world. His newspaper columns have appeared in over 30 countries and have been translated into eight languages. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, the most recent being Guggenheim Fellowship (2020) for his work on antibiotic resistance in refugee camps.

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