The intimate borders of epidemiological nationalism

Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins

doi:10.3167/aia.2020.270314

The intimate borders of epidemiological nationalism

Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, nation-states closed borders. Borders divide – and intimate difference. In this article, I trace an emergent epidemiological nationalism which intimates a contagious other, taking ‘the’ border as my (unstable) object. While post-war and post-wall European projects celebrate dismantling borders, bordering continually becomes by saturating space with territoriality. Illustrating epidemiological nationalism's intimately located here and there, I turn an ethnographic gaze to Wales: a nation yet not a state, with a border that cannot be closed. Through the socio-spatial saturate of the Welsh border's enduring (non)existence run frictive, entangled intimacies. Meshing border studies with Lauren Berlant's theorisation of intimacies, I show epidemiology's conscription in imaginatively inscribing a safely state-like Welsh nation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	67-70
Number of pages	4
Journal	Anthropology in Action
Volume	27
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3167/aia.2020.270314
Publication status	Published - 01 Dec 2020

Keywords

Borders
Britain
COVID-19
Identity
Nationalism
Wales

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abstract = "Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, nation-states closed borders. Borders divide – and intimate difference. In this article, I trace an emergent epidemiological nationalism which intimates a contagious other, taking {\textquoteleft}the{\textquoteright} border as my (unstable) object. While post-war and post-wall European projects celebrate dismantling borders, bordering continually becomes by saturating space with territoriality. Illustrating epidemiological nationalism's intimately located here and there, I turn an ethnographic gaze to Wales: a nation yet not a state, with a border that cannot be closed. Through the socio-spatial saturate of the Welsh border's enduring (non)existence run frictive, entangled intimacies. Meshing border studies with Lauren Berlant's theorisation of intimacies, I show epidemiology's conscription in imaginatively inscribing a safely state-like Welsh nation.",

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The intimate borders of epidemiological nationalism

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