Borderlands and Breaking Points: Tension Across the 49th Parallel Edited by Kyle Conway and Timothy Pasch

For a certain class of phenomena, the logic of the national border—that is, the logic of the controlled passage from one side to the other—does not hold. Crime operates by definition outside of the legal frameworks on either side of a border. Rivers flow across borders, regardless of the actions of the governments whose territories they affect. Native communities, in particular those on the U.S.-Canadian border, enjoy sovereign status that gives their members special rights when crossing the border.

This book will address these phenomena and the tensions they engender between the United States and Canada, paying special attention to the Great Plains states and the Prairie provinces. These tensions are political, resulting from divergent motivations between national and local governments, as well as structural, resulting from divergent approaches to regulation. The book will be interdisciplinary, drawing from fields such as political science, economics, history, communication, geography, Native studies, anthropology, sociology, and literature. It will be organized thematically, with sections focusing on specific phenomena that, like those above, defy the logic of the national border.

The editors are therefore soliciting proposals for articles that would fit the themes of the book. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• the day-to-day operations of national border patrol agencies

• drug smuggling and prostitution in border towns

• the flow of capital in cross-border media production

• questions of sovereignty/identity as they apply to cross-border Native communities

• issues related to water rights, such as the Devils Lake outlet in North Dakota

Please send a 500-word proposal to the editors describing the specific phenomenon you will address in your paper, as well as the tensions you intend to explore. Proposals are due September 1, 2010 and final papers (app. 7500 words, Chicago Manual of Style using footnotes) will be due October 15, 2010. The University of Manitoba Press has expressed strong interest in the manuscript.

Contact information:

Dr. Kyle Conway, kyle.conway@und.edu

Dr. Timothy Pasch, timothy.pasch@und.edu

website: www.undborderlands.org