Annual Report 2021-2022

As we approach the end of the academic year in the Northern Hemisphere, we are pleased to share news and achievements from the Border Criminologies' network. This year has seen a gradual return to in-person events and research, as we have all sought to learn to ‘live with’ Covid. As an organisation, Border Criminologies has undergone some changes in leadership. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Juliet Stumpf and Devyani Prabhat, both of whom have stepped down from the core group, after many years of being instrumental to the organisation's success and growth.

This year we welcomed our new co-director, Sanja Milivojevic, who has been an Associate Director since 2018. After her maternity leave, Alpa Parmar will be rejoining our team in the new academic year. We also welcome new members, Dr Marta Welander, who will join Vicky Canning and Francesca Esposito to work on community engagement and activism, and the new Border Criminologies Student Chapter, which has been established at the University of Bristol. The students involved in this initiative are looking to expand their reach to other universities in the future. You can read Border Criminologies Student Chapter’s inaugural blog on our website, and find and follow them on Twitter and Instagram, as well as subscribe to their mailing list and newsletter.

Our new students at Oxford assisted with many activities. Marcela Müggler and Valencia Scott have helped with communications, while Meghna Sridhar and Vicky Taylor, together with MSt student in the World Literatures programme Ananya Kumar-Banerjee were successful in securing funding from the Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute to support the production and launch of The Oxford Reader’s Guide to Ethical Migration Reporting. This project aims to empower consumers to read migration reporting critically; provide commentators with a framework for assessing articles; and guide journalists in ethically and sensitively reporting on migration. We would also like to recognise Vicky’s contribution in organising our events this year, alongside fellow DPhil students Samuel Singler and Hallam Tuck. This was not an easy task given the blended nature of events in the late/post-pandemic times.

Looking forward, next year Border Criminologies turns 10! We will be holding a number of online and in-person events to celebrate this milestone. One such event will be a workshop presenting papers for a new edited collection – Research Handbook on Border Criminology (to be published by Elgar). Edited by Mary Bosworth, Katja Franko, Rimple Mehta and Maggy Lee, this collection will include contributions on theory, recent research, policy developments, and current debates in border criminology.

While in its origins Border Criminologies sought to draw attention to novel state and non-state practices fusing criminal justice and border control, these days such practices seem ubiquitous. Most alarmingly, as states have opened up following the end of the lockdown, previous reductions in the scale of border control, introduced in some places in response to the pandemic, have largely been rolled back. The UK, in particular, has seen a significant scaling up of detention and quasi-detention practices, as well as the passage of new, harsh, legislation in the form of the UK Borders Act. At the time of writing, the government is, once again, trying to implement a charter flight to Rwanda to process asylum seekers there rather than in the UK.

We will continue to shed light on these and other state practices of border control, map their impact and effects, and explore alternatives. To-date, Border Criminologies was made possible by two research grants: from the ERC and the Leverhulme. More recently, our work has been supported by grants from a number of different funders, including Goldsmith Chambers. Sadly, many of these grants are set to end soon, and Border Criminologies is facing an uncertain future. If you wish to support us or have ideas that can help Border Criminologies secure funds and continue our important work in our tenth anniversary year and beyond, please get in touch.

Mary and Sanja

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