The conference will focus on border spaces as social, material, and political spaces. The presentations will explore the significance of borders for the body, the environment, and infrastructure. Topics will include historical and contemporary perspectives on border demarcations, border experiences, and border crossings. “Hardly any region in Europe has been as strongly shaped by shifting borders in the past as East Central Europe. At the DHI Warsaw, we investigate how territorial changes influenced the lives of people in this region. This leads us to ask these questions in relation to other regions where the Max Weber Foundation is active,” said Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska, Director of the DHI Warsaw, regarding the choice of the conference theme.

The conference will open on Monday, May 4, 2026, with a keynote address by Michal Frankl from the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), Prague Branch. Under the title “Humanitarian Border Crossings: Aid in No Man’s Land”, he will speak about humanitarian aid for refugees in the “no man’s lands” of East Central Europe in the late 1930s. The lecture will shed light on the extent to which border crossings and border experiences shaped humanitarian action.

On May 5 and 6, 2026, five sessions will follow: on phantom borders, on border demarcation in urban spaces, on the redefinition of imperial border spaces, on the material dimension of border demarcation, and on bureaucracy at the border. The presentations will address, among other topics, the legacy of historical borders on infrastructure, border spaces in the South Caucasus, queer underworlds, land rights in colonial border regions, maritime territorial conflicts, and border regimes and financial controls as practices of bordering. A panel discussion featuring Ettore Recchi (Sciences Po), Julia Buyskykh (University College Cork), and Jan Musekamp (DHI Warsaw) titled “Uncommon Experiences: Sharing Borders in Contemporary Europe” will conclude the second day of the conference.

The event will take place in the lecture hall on the 3rd floor of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. The keynote address will be recorded and made available afterward on the DHI Warsaw YouTube channel.

Conference: Border Matters: Embodiment, Environment, and Infrastructure of Border Spaces

Date: May 4–6, 2026

Location: German Historical Institute Warsaw, Aleje Ujazdowskie 39, 00-540 Warsaw

Registration and conference program