Beginnings

I have always been fascinated by borders and particularly who is able or allowed to cross them. I grew up travelling around the world with my parents, going from school to school, country to country, ending up in Canada. I am now pursuing my MA in English, and borders have somehow followed me into my thesis proposal. Essentially, this blog is an academic as well as a personal exercise. Eventually, I need to write a major research paper or a thesis which will explore the notion of border crossing in literature. How people cross borders, when people cross borders, who is or isn't allowed to cross, where borders are, living on borders, and living the border. I think it is entirely possible to internalize the borderland, in performance, in literature, and in life. You might've realized by now I'm not limiting my study to the geopolitical borders, but something much broader. After all, not all people even acknowledge the geopolitical borders due to their arbitrary nature. Take Monique Mojica for example. At a conference this Fall in Toronto, she spoke very determinedly about the fact that borders that are enforced by politics and policing systems disrupt the indigenous understanding of belonging. Belonging is something that can transcend as well as be defined by borders. I agree with Mojica, but the fact is even if we don't believe in borders, we still encounter them- figuratively and literally- with startling frequency. How do we negotiate borders then? How do we even begin to define them?

It is obvious at this point that I have an exceedingly large number of questions and variables that I need to negotiate before I can really build an opinion. In order to answer some of these questions, my plan is to read relevant texts (starting with a pile provided to me by my supervisor) and blog about them. I hope an epiphany will occur eventually, but barring that, maybe at least a larger understanding. Simultaneously to this, I am going to attempt to be self reflexive, examining my own perspective as thoroughly as possible. Also, this is a practice in writing as I attempt to ease up on the academic language and just try get the bare bones out on the page. This way, I have a foundation to build on. It won't be an everyday thing, but I'll try to do what I can.

Since this is technically my first post, let's start off with a personal anecdote. The first time I ever crossed a border was when I was two weeks old. At this time, I was flown all the way from North Western Ontario to Malawi where my parents and older brother were living at the time. According to my parents, the Canadian government demanded a passport for my infant self, despite the fact that within months my facial features would undoubtedly grow unrecognisable. The passport itself would still be valid as my international identity for years, despite its infantile photo.