INTANGIBLE BORDERS IN THE IBERO-AMERICAN WORLD: MEMORIES, IDENTITIES AND OTHERNESS BETWEEN AMERICA AND EUROPE
Borders have traditionally been conceived as lines of territorial and political demarcation. However, recent research in the humanities and social sciences has highlighted the existence of other borders, less visible but equally decisive in shaping Ibero-American societies. These are intangible borders: cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, symbolic and affective, historically constructed through processes of inclusion, exclusion, negotiation and conflict. In a context marked by the reconfiguration of collective identities, disputes over memory, and the questioning of traditional national narratives, the study of intangible borders offers an analytical tool for understanding the historical complexity of the Ibero-American space.
This symposium proposes to reflect on the historical production of intangible borders in the Ibero-American world, conceived as a space of intense exchanges and circulations between America and Europe. It is of interest to analyze how memories, identities and forms of otherness have been constructed, negotiated and resignified on both sides of the Atlantic, attending to the historical connections among the Spanish American territories, Brazil, Spain and Portugal. Likewise, the proposal seeks to constitute a space for interdisciplinary and transnational dialogue that strengthens collaboration networks among researchers and promotes a shared research agenda on the dynamics of differentiation, processes of interaction, and the multiple forms of articulation that have shaped the Ibero-American space.
The proposal starts from the premise that borders are not only spaces of separation but also zones of contact, exchange and the creation of new cultural and political experiences. In this sense, intangible borders make it possible to analyze the processes of formation of national, regional and ethnic identities; the relations between centers and peripheries; the tensions between modernity and tradition; practices of memory; heritage-making policies; migratory experiences; knowledge transfers; and the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion.
Likewise, the symposium seeks to move beyond the historiographical divisions that have often kept studies of Latin America and Brazil separate from those devoted to Spain and Portugal. It thus takes up the premise that borders do not turn their backs on one another, but rather constitute spaces of encounter, circulation and reciprocity, making it possible to think of the Ibero-American world as a territory of connections, dialogues and shared experiences.
Papers are invited from various disciplinary perspectives (History, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, cultural studies, history of education, history of science, memory and heritage studies) and from different chronological frameworks, from the colonial era to the present.
