Doctoral Dissertation Research: Borders, Boundaries, and Identities in India and Bangladesh

近年来，研究全球化和国际移民进程的学者们质疑以地点为基础的群体认同范畴在当代世界的持久性。在这些文献中，世界经常被描述为具有前所未有的边界孔洞，人口和文化思想正在以历史上前所未有的水平跨越边界。然而，与此同时，在世界许多地区，随着人们继续强烈认同国家和家园，政治边界造成的分裂正在日益加剧。采用包括深度访谈、焦点小组和参与者观察在内的定性研究方法，本博士论文研究项目通过调查印度和孟加拉国边境地区民族、民族和宗教认同类别的叙述和设定来探讨这些矛盾。这些边界地区提供了一个重要的案例研究，因为边界两侧的居民虽然有共同的语言和种族分类为孟加拉语，但近60年来一直被政治边界分割。这个项目是由三个相互关联的研究问题推动的。1)在与全球化的话语和实践相交时，基于地点的认同过程是如何变化的？2)在印度和孟加拉国的边境地区，社会边界是如何在日常生活中发展、维持和消解的？3)在南亚分治60年后，边境地区的人口是如何在边境另一边构建“他者”的？共同的语言和相似的文化是否导致了影响身份识别过程的跨国界社会网络？或者，边疆地区已经成为独立的国家身份被有力地表现、叙述和颁布的地区？这个项目的结果将有助于理论研究的两个相关但往往互不相连的领域。一方面，最近的政治地理学研究重新定义了政治边界在社会中的作用。另一方面，社会科学中广泛学科的工作已经批判性地重新评估了群体之间社会边界的发展。通过勾画出这些联系，这个项目的发现将有助于正在进行的关于种族和国家认同类别在当代世界的持久性以及边界和边界在构建、争夺和重新定义这些社会联系中所起的作用的辩论。该项目的更广泛影响将是通过出版物和在会议上的发言，加深人们对世界上一个重要但未得到充分研究的区域的认识。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的，独立的研究事业。

In recent years scholars studying the processes of globalization and international migration have questioned the persistence of place-based group identity categories in the contemporary world. In these literatures the world is often described as having an unprecedented porosity of borders where populations and cultural ideas are moving across boundaries at levels unseen in history. At the same time, however, in many parts of the world the divisions imposed by political borders are being increasingly enforced as people continue to identify strongly with nations and homelands. Using a qualitative research methodology that includes in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, this doctoral dissertation research project engages with these contradictions by investigating the narration and enactment of ethnic, national, and religious identity categories in the borderlands between India and Bangladesh. These borderlands provide a significant case study because the residents of the two sides of the border, while sharing a common language and ethnic classification as Bengali, have been divided by a political boundary for almost sixty years. This project is driven by three inter-related research questions. 1) How are place-based identification processes changing as they intersect with globalization discourses and practices? 2) How are social boundaries developed, maintained, and dissolved in everyday life in the borderlands between India and Bangladesh? 3) Sixty years after the partition of South Asia, how do the populations in the borderlands construct 'the other' across the border? Has the common language and similar culture led to trans-border social networks that affect the processes of identification? Or have the borderlands become areas where separate national identities are vigorously performed, narrated, and enacted? The results of this project will contribute to two related, but often disconnected, areas of theoretical research. On the one hand, recent work in political geography has reconceptualized the role of political borders in society. On the other hand, work across a broad range of disciplines in the social sciences has critically reappraised the development of social boundaries between groups. By mapping out these connections, the findings of this project will contribute to ongoing debates about the durability of ethnic and national identity categories in the contemporary world and the role borders and boundaries play in constructing, contesting, and redefining these social affiliations. The broader impact of this project will be to deepen the awareness of an important but understudied region of the world through publications and presentations at conferences. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong, independent research career.