Eur-Asian Border Lab through its online and offline activities catalysed trans-regional conversations and synergies between the Euro-American and Asian border scholars and addressed the contrast between bordering as an increasingly complicated conceptual process and the more straightforward policy-oriented approaches. It generated intellectual, theoretical and methodological exchange, engaged scholars in conversations across disciplines, cross-fertilized research findings at the multiple academic events it organized at TLU and internationally, while also reaching out to practitioners, policymakers and the public in multiple formats. The key project events include the symposium "Bridging the Regions and Disciplines in Border Studies" (TLU / 17-20.01.2024) resulting in proposals for two special journal issues, a workshop “Negotiating inter- and intra-ethnic connectivities in boundless Southeast Asia” (TLU / 16.04.2025) and the Lab’s Research Day (TLU / 9-10.10.2025). To establish a dialogue with practitioners and policymakers and bridge academic research, the Lab created the Eur-Asian Border Lab Forum series that ran six workshops on pressing border issues on topics of urgent societal concern.
Supporting early career researchers was a priority of the project, with continual support for their teaching and research mobilities, culminating in a summer school at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA, Bishkek / 2.-6.06.2025). Alongside, improving TLU’s research and management capacity was addressed in transferrable skills workshops, work shadowing and learning by doing.
The Lab’s website was the key basis for online engagement, featuring regular interventions by the project's team members, blog posts from affiliated and interested scholars, and resources and tools to widen border thinking in and through academia, art and policy. The website was effectively used to run online activities, engaging scholars and students globally through a photo essay contest, an essay contest on volumetric bordering, and calls for participation at its events, enhancing TLU’s reputation as the organizer and location for most of the events. Through the key events but also daily activities, the Lab built a reputation for creating trans-regional and inter-disciplinary conversations on borders. While the website was used to communicate news and information on the Lab’s activities, as well as other border-related events globally, faster content delivery was facilitated through the project’s various social media channels.
The Lab engaged with a broad audience including policymakers, government officials, think tanks, media and NGOs, raising awareness on the broad effects of bordering. Through collaboration, research, exchange and mentoring, the project provided a sharing and learning experience for all participants.
