Michal Frankl (Leibniz GWZO Prag)
“Humanitarian Border Crossings: Aid in No Manʼs Landˮ

Moderator: Jan Musekamp

The talk follows the trajectories of humanitarians who helped refugees stranded in the no manʼs land that formed along the shifting borders in East Central Europe in the late 1930s. These refugees languished between boundary stones, fences, or barriers in a no manʼs land that could take the shape of barren, windy fields, cold, hostile forests, a rusty barge, or decrepit, abandoned factories. The material and other aid provided by aid workers was essential for the survival in no manʼs land, but it also expressed the hierarchies and tensions inherent in humanitarian activity. Drawing on the experience of no manʼs land in 1938–39 and on current research in humanitarianism and border studies, the talk will explore border crossings and border experience as integral to and constitutive of humanitarian activity generally. The talk argues that studying borders and border crossings provides new insights into humanitarianism in its various forms, locales, and scales.

Monday, 4 May 2026
18:00-19:30 

Keynote lecture of the Conference ‘Border Matters: Embodiment, Environment, and Infrastructure of Border Spaces’