The Politics of Memory in the Borderlands

This project will research bordering practices and their political, social and linguistic mechanisms and effects on the islands of Bute (Scotland) and Lampedusa (Italy). Though different in many ways, both islands are surrounded by the natural border of the sea and home to small, isolated communities which have seen increased numbers of international migrants in recent years (UNHCR, 2019; McKenna, 2017). Focusing on these two case sites and using an innovative method of translation workshops, this project aims to contribute to the lesser studied areas of rural borderscapes and geographies of multilingualism, while providing original, critical and potentially policy-relevant research on migrant integration, community memory and multilingualism.