The Fez Border Studies Conference II :

Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Borders, Walls, and Security

| Programme |

This conference, which takes place in Fez, Morocco, from May 18-21, 2026, is organized by the Legal and Political Studies Laboratory at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University (USMBA) in Fez, the Center for Geopolitical Studies – Raoul-Dan-durand Chair at the University of Québec at Montréal (UQAM), and INALCO (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), in collaboration with the School of Transborder Studies (Arizona State University).

In an era marked by resurgent nationalism, supply chain disruptions, hypersecuritization, polycrisis building on health (in)security and climate change, borders reclaim centrality and intensify their role as key political features and spatial technologies. This event seeks to shift the lens, focusing on how deglobalization processes —real or imagined— are transforming border regimes, bordering practices, migration governance, and wall-building projects worldwide. It emphasizes the importance of the global South and non-Western/or Native perspectives and gender inclusivity in rethinking borders as imposed colonial constructs and as lived, contested, and relational spaces. Alternative knowledge systems challenge the very premises of territorial sovereignty, national boundaries, and fixed border regimes, offering alternative frameworks for understanding land, mobility, and political belonging.

This conference builds on the foundations of the 2024 conference, entitled “Towards a New Agenda in Border Studies”, where participants collectively articulate the Fez Agenda for Border Studies. This second edition brings together scholars from diverse disciplines and backgrounds to substantially rethink how border(ing) processes, practices and related theories are approached, by deliberately decentering the analysis hitherto produced primarily in the North. Advancing this agenda, this edition interrogates borders and walls through interdisciplinary, transnational, and alternative perspectives. It offers a unique and unprecedented space for in-depth discussions around the renewal of border studies, aiming at fostering the establishment of an inclusive, innovative and multidisciplinary research network. The conference is held in English, French and Arabic.

Organizers/Scientific Commitee : 

Said Saddiki, USMBA, Morocco
Elisabeth Vallet, CMRSJ & UQAM, Canada
Irasema Coronado, ASU, United States
Dhananjay Tripathi, SAU, India
Damien Simonneau, INALCO, France
Kenneth Madsen, OSU, USA
Badr Elkhaldi, USMBA, Morocco
Gabrielle Gagnon, UQAM, Canada
Hamdy Hassan, CU, Egypt
Reece Jones, UHM, United States
Meryem Lakhdar, USMBA, Morocco
Laurence Lamoureux, UQAM, Canada