2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

The border “wall” between the United States and Mexico (in its present form, and as it might be expanded) stands as a testament to the political economy of regimentation, and as a visual remnant of environmental loss. Such a physical barrier between close nations—and across fragile landscapes—is not only costly in financial terms, but likewise in cultural, environmental, and psychological terms as well. The wall seeks to impose biophysical and psychosocial control, preventing the permeable exchanges that are the hallmarks of healthy systems. The manifestation of the border wall conjures and intertwines forces of political machinations, economic exploitation, sociocultural bifurcation, and ecosystemic interruption—and its very construction requires shredding already-thin environmental and legal protections. Against all of this, it may be surprising to consider that the border wall has also sparked a renewed spirit of resilience, resistance, recovery, and restoration as well. Human rights and environmental activists have built bridges across the border in ways designed to reclaim a common humanity and a shared ecology, including through the provision of water to those traversing the desert. Some policymakers have commissioned regional gatherings to explore the bridging potential of shared environmental concerns, as part of the evolving framework of environmental peacebuilding. Artists and musicians have used various media to share narratives not only of loss but also of hope and possibility arising out of crisis. These signs of mobilization in the face of militarization are reflective of a larger ethos in which an emergency can spark emergence, and signal a pathway toward reclaiming connection both with and through ecosystems across spaces of regimentation.