New ISS-funded project compares the lived experiences and imaginaries of those crossing and living in securitised water borders.
The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) is funding a project entitled Water, Securitisation Anxieties and Border Imaginaries (WASABI). The project aims to compare the lived experiences and imaginaries of those crossing and living in securitized water borders in Sri Lanka, Central America, Eastern Mediterranean, the Southern Caucasus and the Sulu Sea in the Philippines.
The project brings together five ISS researchers (Nanneke Winters, Shyamika Jayasundara-Smits, Zeynep Kasli, Farhad Mukhtarov and Helena Perez Nino) and is funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands as part of its Starter Grant scheme.
First steps
During 2024, the WASABI team has been developing the project’s main theoretical framework, undertaking scoping field work and preparing for the collaborative and comparative components of the project.
WASABI’s first public engagement took place on 24-25 June during the 'Marine Mobilities' symposium organized by Wageningen University's environmental policy group. The group presented a paper entitled ‘Living through and making sense of water borders and their imaginaries' based on the emerging theoretical framework and two case studies from the Colombia-Panama border and Sri Lanka.
WASABI’s presentation was well received and praised for its critical take on water borders and imaginaries and for its efforts to re-engage with Black and Caribbean scholarship. The symposium was attended by scholars from Dutch universities (Wageningen, Radboud, Amsterdam) and from Norway, France, Senegal as well as representatives from NGOs and other think tanks.
