BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//eluceo/ical//2.0/EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:226bcccdc3c09b9e7ec9c64c6019983c DTSTAMP:20260612T084725Z SUMMARY:The Higher Research Seminar: Benjamin Rosher\, University of Gothen burg - “Affective borders: ontological security and emotional attachment s to state borders” DESCRIPTION:Contact: Catarina.Kinnvall@svet.lu.se\n\nAbstract \;One of the most pressing global challenges is that our current border imaginaries are unsustainable. By the end of 2022\, for reasons including conflict\, globalisation\, and climate change\, over 281 million people currently liv e in a country other than their country of birth\, either out of choice or necessity. Furthermore\, borders obscure the racialised violence that mai ntain them and harm those whom they nominally seek to protect\; by creatin g a fear of the monsters who live out there\, borders limit our social wor lds and opportunities in the name of protection and security. Despite this \, people remain emotionally attached to borders. For many\, they provide a sense of ontological security – the phenomenological security of the s elf.In this session\, I will explore three avenues for understanding emoti onal attachments to borders: Lauren Berlant’s work on Cruel Optimism\, S imone Weil’s argument for the Need for Roots\, and Brian Massumi’s the orisation of the Future Birth of the Affective Fact. Each of these theoris ts\, in different ways\, can help us understand why calls to “take back control” of borders can be so seductive\, and why emotional attachments to borders can be so central to our ontological security seeking\, despite (or even because of) the manifold harms they inflict.Benjamin RosherI am an international political sociologist and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Gothenburg. My doctoral thesis explored the role that contin gency plays in both producing and mediating the experience of the post-Bre xit border in Northern Ireland. My research interests span critical border and ontological security studies and I have been published in high-rankin g academic journals including European Security and International Politica l Sociology. I have submitted evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees and written research reports for both public and private sector stakeholde rs. I have also engaged in extensive public facing work\, particularly thr ough my role as a Research Associate with the Centre for Cross Border Coop eration and as a Research Assistant on the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey where my work has been cited in national and international media o utlets including The Guardian\, Daily Mirror\, and Time Magazine. Finally\ , I am co-founder and co-convener of the Ontological Security Studies Rese arch Network\, a multi-disciplinary global network of over 150 members acr oss all career stages working on ontological security studies.The Higher R esearch Seminar is the Department's main collective seminar. The research staff and invited national and international leading scholars present ongo ing research and analyses of a broad range of exciting topics of relevance for Political Science.The Higher Research Seminar is held on Wednesdays\, 13.15 to 14.30 in Eden 367\, unless otherwise indicated. PhD Mid-term sem inars 13:15 to 14:45. \;Convenors: Robert Klemmensen and Jonathan Polk The seminars are open to the public. Welcome to join us!The Higher Researc h Seminar | Department of Political Science\n\nMore information about the event: https://www.svet.lu.se/en/calendar/higher-research-seminar-benjamin -rosher-university-gothenburg-affective-borders-ontological-security DTSTART;TZID=GMT:20260422T111500 DTEND;TZID=GMT:20260422T123000 LOCATION:Large conference room\, Eden 367. END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR