Permeable Borders: History, Theory, Policy, and Practice in the United States

If the frontier, in all its boundless possibility, was a central organizing metaphor for much of U.S. history, today it is arguably the border that best encapsulates the American experience, as xenophobia, economic inequality, and resurgent nationalism continue to fuel conditions of division and limitation. This boldly interdisciplinary volume explores the ways that historical and contemporary actors in the U.S. have crossed such borders―whether national, cultural, ethnic, racial, or conceptual. Together, these essays suggest new ways to understand borders while encouraging connection and exchange, even as social and political forces continue to try to draw lines around and between people.

Paul Otto is Professor of History at George Fox University. He earned a Ph.D. at Indiana University and has been the recipient of several grants and fellowships, including support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Humanities Center. He has published several articles, and his book, The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley, won the Hendricks Award for the best volume in colonial Dutch studies.

Susanne Berthier-Foglar is Professor of American Studies and Native American Studies at University Grenoble Alpes; she is the director adjunct of ILCEA4, a research group focusing on world languages and cultures. She is the author of Les Indiens pueblo du Nouveau-Mexique. De l'arrivée des conquistadors à la souveraineté des nations pueblo (Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2010) and has edited or co-edited four other volumes.