It is a pleasure to invite you to the third session of the 2026 Racial Capitalism, Borders and Migration seminar series, which will take place on Wednesday 08th of April at 12:00pm CET.
On this occasion, we are delighted to welcome Shahram Khosravi (Stockholm University), who will deliver the lecture:
“The Weight of the Border”
📍 Venue: Anthropology Laboratory (1st floor, Faculty of Geography and History, University of Barcelona)
Shahram Khosravi is professor of Anthropology at Stockholm University. His research interests include anthropology of Iran, forced displacement, border studies, and temporality. Khosravi is the author of several books such as: Young and Defiant in Tehran (2008); The Illegal Traveler: an auto-ethnography of borders, (2010); Precarious Lives: Waiting and Hope in Iran, (2017); After Deportation: Ethnographic Perspectives, (2017, edited volume); Waiting. A project in Conversation (2021, edited volume), Seeing Like a Smuggler (2022, edited volume), and The Gaze of the X-ray: An Archive of Violence (2024, edited volume). He recently started Critical Border Studies, a network for scholars, artists and activists to interact.
Abstract:
Borders are not merely lines on maps; they are lived experiences. A border exists only insofar as it is felt, and it is not experienced equally. It is most forcefully present for those who are made to feel it. Who senses the border? Who carries its weight? For individuals burdened by legal precarity, racialization, and poverty, the border becomes a persistent condition. It follows them, shaping where they can go, how they move, and which opportunities remain out of reach. Bordering practices continue to structure their lives through surveillance, exclusion, and bureaucratic control. In this sense, the border is always ahead, never fully left behind. The border, then, is not only a site but an enduring condition. In this talk, I draw on examples from Iran and Sweden to demonstrate how borders operate as instruments of racialized governance and differentiated mobility.
📌 Registration:
https://form.jotform.com/260823309761357
(Please register to secure your place and to receive updates regarding the live streaming link, and any changes)
🎥 Live streaming:
https://www.ub.edu/ubtv/video/seminar-racial-capitalism-3rd-session
📺 Recording (available afterwards):
https://www.ub.edu/ubtv/colleccio/series/seminar-racial-capitalism-borders-and-migrations
We look forward to welcoming you.
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