ISRH

We are living in a world of borders. The borders are not only shaped by natural conditions, which often create physical barriers difficult to cross, but also by human actions. People constantly encounter borders in everyday life: national, political, administrative, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, social, economic and mental. In historiography, long dominated by political history, the borders of states have traditionally played a central role. This is particularly visible in cartography, where political maps highlight administrative boundaries in bold colours and with rigid lines. When a region changes, one colour is magically exchanged for another. Yet, they are merely symbolic constructs. In reality, borders are rarely so clearcut. Regional phenomena often transcend administrative borders. The boundaries in natural, built and cultural environments – not to say in virtual worlds – are often fluid, unclear and overlapping.

In research work, both historians and social scientists have too often taken borders for granted. Current political boundaries are frequently projected anachronistically onto the past, with research areas neatly aligned along national or administrative borders. If the borders of a chosen region change, the historians’ research area should likewise account for the change. The ISRH 2026 Global Conference will challenge this rather conventional approach. The focus is on cross-border phenomena in history.

Many African borders were drawn as the result of colonial decisions. Still, cultural and historical influences continue to cross them. A similar phenomenon can be observed on every continent. For instance, the frontier between Mexico and the USA divides the historically significant cultural area of the Pimería Alta. In Asia, the historical region of Manchuria, which spans parts of modern-day China, Russia and North Korea, has not only been a site of imperial rivalry but also a place where cultural, political and economic exchanges have transcended national borders for centuries. Political control has changed but the region’s historical significance as a cross-cultural zone remains. In Europe, regionalism has revitalised the histories of border areas. Research has increasingly focused on the lived experiences of people inhabiting ethnolinguistic borders, from divided cities to areas like the Euregions (e.g., the Oderraum, the frontier between Poland and Germany extending from the Baltic Sea to the Czech border) and the contemporary histories of potential states (e.g., Galicia, the Basque Country and Scotland). Studies also explore cross-border regions within a country as well as micro-regions within cities and how identities are shaped on either side of a border.

We invite submissions from scholars examining cross-border regional phenomena throughout history, on any scale, from any part of the world. The temporal and spatial scope of the research is flexible but necessary. All the papers should have contemporary relevance and engage with the historical complexities of crossing borders.