On June 24, 2026, Dr. Carolyn Defrin presented and facilitated the workshop Doors to the Future at the International Forum on Artistic Research, in Galway, Ireland, highlighting the role of collaborative artistic practice in reimagining borders and migration futures.
On June 24th, 2026, visiting fellow Prof. Dr. Maribel Casas-Cortés delivered a public lecture on how migration shapes the logics of platform capitalism, transforming labor, mobility, and citizenship in app-based work, moderated by project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata as part of the Field of Excellence "Dimensions of Europe" lunch lecture series.
On June 18, 2026, Angelika Adensamer presented "Legal Fiction, Real Consequences: The construct of "implicit withdrawal" in the Migration Pact and the elasticity of the legal border", at the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (ACMRL) conference on Migration Law.
On June 10, 2026, visiting fellow Dr. Sebastian Cobarrubias delivered a public lecture on the production of race through migration management in Spain, moderated by project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr.Bilgin Ayata as part of the Field of Excellence "Dimensions of Europe" lunch lecture series.
On June 9, 2026, Professor Rinaldo Walcott (University at Buffalo), held the teach-in “Thinking the Time of the Long Emancipation”, hosted within our project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata’s Introduction to Postcolonial Studies lecture and organized together with Akua Leonie Wolbert.
During the 3rd CAMPS conference, Elastic Borders organised the Panel #1: “The Elastic Borders of the EU: Analyzing Contemporary Border Regimes in Europe and Beyond”, chaired by project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata (University of Graz) and featuring Dr. Sebastian Cobarrubias (University of Zaragoza & visiting fellow of Elastic Borders) as discussant.
Team members presented:
Dr. Artemis Fyssa – From One Camp to the Next: Border Elasticity and the Scaling Up of Confinement on a Greek Island
Mirco Buoso – Elastic Bordering through Encampment and Transfer: Ethnographic Notes from Tenerife, Canary Islands
Angelika Adensamer – Legal Techniques of Elasticity: The Erosion of Rights through the Fiction of Non-Entry
Dr. Charlie Yves Ngoudji Tameko – Surviving the Atlantic, Arriving Unwell: EU Border Regimes and Migrant Health in the Canary Islands
Affiliated researcher Dr. Carolyn Defrin hosted the art installation Past Portals to Future Worlds and organised the Elastic Borders Connection Lab, which featured contributions from the fieldwork of Research Unit 2’s members, Dr. Artemis Fyssa, Dr. Chiara Pagano and Mirco Buoso.
On June 2, 2026, during an internal workshop, joined by visiting fellow Dr. Sebastian Cobarrubias, Dr. Jonathan Cortez (University of Texas) presented his research on the US-Mexican Border, offering important grounds for comparison and exchange with the Elastic Border’s Team.
On May 19, 2026, the Elastic Borders team took part in the cluster workshop “Migration, Mobility and Borders in Europe and Beyond”, part of the Field of Excellence Dimensions of Europe bringing together researchers from across the project and affiliated networks to discuss the implications of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, with inputs from project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata, and members Dr. Artemis Fyssa, Mirco Buoso, and Angelika Adensamer, affiliated researcher Dr. Gustavo Orden de La Bosch (University of Deusto).
On May 18, 2026, visiting fellow Dr. Sebastian Cobarrubias gave the lecture: "The map precedes the territory: moral geography, spatial order and the normative basis for border control", as part of the Geo-Kolloquium lecture series.
On May 13, 2026, Mirco Buoso gave the lecture: "The Atlantic Route and the Canary Islands" within the Lecture Series "Fluchtmigration & europäische Asylpolitik. Externalisierung, Routen, Realitäten" organised by the Flüchtlingsrat Schleswig-Holstein
April 19-23, 2026, Project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata held the lecture "The Art of Crafting a Lecture", while Mirco Buoso presented “From Proposal to Problem: Empirical and Conceptual Rethinking in the Canary Islands Borderzone".
April 15-18, 2026, Mirco Buoso presented "Elastic Borders: Reconfiguring Mobility Governance in the Canary Islands", at the Fourth mid-term Conference of the working group “Criminology of Mobility”: Othering and the Reconfiguration of Mobility Governance in Europe - Vrije Universiteit Brussels.
On March 6, 2026, Mirco Buoso competed at the Three Minutes Thesis Competition - 3MT at the University of Graz.
March 2-3 , 2026, Dr. Chiara Pagano co-organised the international conference "Beyond Migrations: People and Human Mobilities Across Contemporary Mediterranean History" at the University of Pavia, bringing together scholars to discuss contemporary human mobility across the Mediterranean and fostering interdisciplinary exchange within migration studies.
On February 19, 2026, Dr. Artemis Fyssa delivered the Interview “Wenn einfache Antworten nicht ausreichen”, an interview part of a special feature titled ‘Women in Science’, published on Austria Press Agency.
On February 12, 2026, Angelika Andensamer submitted a legal opinion to the Austrian Parliament on the data protection implications of the proposed legal adaptation to the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum.
From 2 to 17 February 2026, Dr. Carolyn Defrin led the creation and public premiere of the participatory art installation Doors to the Future. Developed together with local communities in Samos, the project combined artistic practice, dialogue, and public engagement to explore alternative futures for border regions.
On December 9, 2025, Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata, Dr. Artemis Fyssa and Mirco Buoso took part in the workshop Border Area Development(BAD): from the Habsburg military border to the Schengen edge of the EU – new project of the Regional centre in Gospic, at the University of Graz, presenting research methods and findings focusing on Research Unit 2, Sub-project 4 and 6.
On December 2, 2025, Dr. Carolyn Defrin delivered a public lecture “Strange and Beautiful Futures. Imagining migration beyond securitization and division” at Rotor, in dialogue with Rotor gallery's exhibition 'STRANCI' - which probed the shifting political and cultural dimensions of "the stranger".
27-28 November, 2025, Project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata and Dr. Artemis Fyssa took part in the ESA RN35 Sociology of Migration Midterm Conference - Sociology of migration after the 2015 “migrant crisis”. The project was represented with two conference papers. Bilgin Ayata discussed “Elastic Borders and the Knowledge Politics of EU Migration Governance since 2015”, while Artemis Fyssa discussed “From Hotspot to CCAC: Socio-political Transformations & the Restructuring of Migration Governance in Samos, Greece”.
On October 11, 2025, Project leader Univ.- Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata participated in the public discussion accompanying the screening of Abdenour Zahzah's film about Frantz Fanon's work in a psychiatric hospital in Blida, Algiers, from 1953 to 1956, on the occasion of Frantz Fanon’s hundredth birthday, Finissage of the exhibition Milica Tomić. On Love Afterwards.
On November 8, 2025, Dr. Carolyn Defrin presented "Co-creating future imaginations of the border: Artistic Resistances in dehumanised migration landscapes" at the conference The Mediterranean: Between Fantasy and Reality. The presentation showcased how artistic practice can challenge dominant narratives surrounding migration and borders.
6-7 November, 2025, Dr. Artemis Fyssa chaired conference panels and represented the Elastic Borders project at the interdisciplinary conference Facing Inequalities – Strategies for Change, contributing to discussions on inequality, mobility, and social transformation.
10-12, July 2025, Dr. Chiara Pagano presented “What happens when a frontier governorate gets “turned into a prison”? Understanding borders as elastic and interrogating their impact on the communities inhabiting, crossing, or stranded at the Tunisian-Libyan border”, at the 10th Ethnography & Qualitative Research International Conference in Trento, Italy.
1-4 July, 2025, Mirco Buoso presented “Elastic Borders: Evolving Border Regimes in the Canary Islands” at the IMISCOE XXII Annual Conference.
On June 23, 2025, Mirco Buoso and Chiara Pagano took part to the first episode of the Radio Helsinki podcast Radio Re:volt on Elastic Borders.
Conducted by Fatih Kalkan.
On June 10, 2025, Bilgin Ayata and Artemis Fyssa took part to the first episode of the Radio Helsinki podcast Radio Re:volt on Elastic Borders.
Conducted by Fatih Kalkan.
On May 6 and May 12, 2025, in Vienna and Graz, and more specifically at Depot and Forum Stadtpark, Dr. Laura Jung, Mag. Angelika Adensamer, and Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata presented the project results of AISYL, a research project funded by Zukunftsfonds Steiermark on AI and asylum in Austria. Its findings are comprised in a brochure aimed at advocacy groups and the wider public, which can be found on the project's website.
They also held a roundtable discussion with external experts. In Vienna's event, these were Monika Mokre (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), Wolfgang Salm (Fairness Asyl), and Julia Satovich (BBU – Bundesagentur für Betreuungs- und Unterstützungsleistungen), while in Graz it was Daniela Grabovac (Antidiskriminierungsstelle Steiermark), Bianca Nöst (Caritas Steiermark), and Klaudia Wieser (Pushback Alarm) who contributed to the discussion.
Local radios such as Radio Helsinki reported about the event in Graz (https://helsinki.at/podcast/709701/), and both venues enjoyed sizeable audiences.
From March 1 to 4, 2025, Dr. Laura Jung participated in the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in Chicago, where she presented her paper "Predicting the Unpredictable—AI, Epistemic Politics, and the EU Border Regime."
There she was awarded the Best Early Investigator Award by the ISA's Global Health Section for the paper 'Transformation or Adaptation? Post-War German Politics and Theories of International Order.'
On December 5, 2024, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata formed part of the panel discussion at the second plenary session "Crises in Europe - What can history teach us?", in the framework of the OHTE 4th Annual Conference "History in crisi(e)s?". She joined journalist Alex Taylor, and scholars Harold J. Cook, Tal Bruttmann, Peter Gautschi, and Caitriona Ni Cassaithe.
On November 23, 2024, Dr. Chiara Pagano delivered the presentation "Between mobility and control: the Tunisian-Libyan border under the test of historical legacies and new contestations” (in French) at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (CAREP) in Tunis, Tunisia. This was part of the international colloquium "Tunisia at the migratory crossroads between Africa and Europe: politics, international relations and human mobility" (in French).
On 22 November 2024, project leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata gave the keynote "Borders, Violence, and (Im)Mobility in the 21st Century" at the University of Coimbra in the framework of the PhD Programme in International Relations and the cycle "New Trends in International Politics and Conflict Resolution."
On 16 November 2024, project leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata delivered a talk in "Panel 5: Blindspots of Modernity 2" of the Symposium "Entanglements. The Politics of Aesthetics and Retelling of Modernisms and Modern Art", hosted by the Kunsthaus Graz in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Art at the University & Strange Tools Research Lab at the University of Cincinnati.
On November 13, 2024, Dr. Laura Jung presented her ongoing research at the event "AI at the Border – Digital Technologies in Migration Contexts", examining AI applications in asylum processes and exploring the ethical and human rights challenges of these technologies. Afterwards, Univ-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata moderated a panel which included voices from academia, policy, and NGOs. The event is a cooperation between the Artificial Intelligence Ethics Advisory Board of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights and Human Security and the European Training and Research Center for Human Rights and Democracy at the University of Graz.
On 7 November 2024, project leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata took part in the pannel discussion "Unveiling simplistic narratives on migration and borders" as a speaker, and then in conversation with Professors Sebastian Cobarrubias Baglietto, Lorenzo Gabrielli, and Blanca Garcès Mascareñas. This public event was hosted at CIDOB in Barcelona.
On Monday, 4 November, 2024, project leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata presented the results of her long-term research on European Migration Policy and the Mediterranean at the Aula, the university's most majestic room. This took place in the framework of the "Monday's Academy", a lecture series directed to any public and one of Uni Graz's most representative initiatives for sharing knowledge with the wider local community. This keynote was live-streamed and followed at the headquarters of 5 different cultural and political institutions all around Austria.
On October 31, 2024, Dr. Laura Jung participated in the panel discussion "Communicative AI and the power of algorithms", the kick-off event of "Translation Talks", a lecture series that deals with the socio-political, technological, and ethical dimensions of translation and interpreting.
On October 22 & 23, 2024, Dr. Chiara Pagano participated in the conference "Migrants’ Mobilities, (Post)Colonial Borders, and State Policies in Morocco and the Mediterranean Region", hosted by Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fes, Morocco, where she presented the paper "Illegitimate Practices and Ethnic Segregation: How the Italian Hotspot System Excludes North African Citizens from Europe".
On 21 October, 2024, project leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata talked about the shifts in EU migration and asylum policies in the broadcast "Verschärfen, Abschotten, Abschieben", or "Tightening up, sealing off, deporting", hosted by the Austrian national public broadcaster ORF. She explored their societal impacts and the "fiction of control" in border practices.
On 17 October, 2024, Dr. Chiara Pagano participated in the workshop “Protecting people or borders?” within the scope of the First Conference on the Law of the Sea and Maritime Solidarity organized by SOS Mediterranee in Montpellier.
On October 10 & 11, 2024, Dr. Laura Jung contributed to the ADiM Doctoral and Postdoctoral Colloquium "Migration & Artificial Intelligence: What Future for Migration and Asylum Policy in the EU?", in Lampedusa. During the second day of the colloquium, she presented her research, which critically examines the implications of artificial intelligence on the future of migration and asylum policy within the European Union.
On Friday, September 27, 2024, Dr. Laura Jung was elected as one of the new spokespersons of the Migration Policy Working Group at the DVPW (German Political Science Association) Conference in Göttingen.
On 14 June 2024, Univ.-Prof. and project director Bilgin Ayata, Dr. Laura Jung, Artemis Fyssa, and Dr. Chiara Pagano participated and delivered panel presentations at the AgorAkademi Seminar "Border as Public Space", which prof. Ayata helped coordinate together along with Dr. Nilüfer Göle. Project assistant Alisa Sinkievich also participated. The event was hosted by AgorAkademi with the support of the Columbia Global Paris Center.
On June 4, 2024, we had the pleasure to host Behrouz Boochani for a student teach-in within the framework of the lecture "Introduction to Post-colonial Studies". Boochani is an award-winning Kurdish writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate, and filmmaker. He currently serves as an Associate Professor in Social Sciences at UNSW and is a non-resident Visiting Scholar at the Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre (SAPMiC) at the University of Sydney. Boochani is an Honorary Member of PEN International and has received numerous awards, including the Amnesty International Australia 2017 Media Award, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award.
On June 5, 2024, Prof. Dr. Deniz Yükseker examined, through the concept of vernacularization, how migrant integration as a policy concept has been transferred to Turkey through its Europeanization of migration policy, especially in the wake of the EU migration management externalization. Deniz Yükseker is a professor of sociology at the Izmir University of Economics and has published extensively on Syrian refugees, African migrants, forced internal displacement of Kurds, and circular migration of shuttle traders in Turkey.
From May 30 to June 2, 2024, the conference "Camps, Carceral Imaginaries, and Critical Interventions" took place at the University of Graz, hosted by the Center for Inter-American Studies (CIAS), and co-organized by project leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata. The Elastic Borders team, together with Alaa Dia, held a panel on the result of their research, while they also chaired several panels.
On 30 May 2024, project leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata delivered the presentation "Elastic Border as Zones of Stress and Strain in the Canaries Islands" at the conference "Le monde à l'épreuve de l'exil" (The world under the test of exile), organized by the French Academy in Rome & the College of France at La Villa Médicis, in Rome, and under the direction of Anne-Claire Defossez and Didier Fassin.
On 23 & 24 May, 2024, the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL), in Oñati, Basque Country held the workshop "Interdisciplinary Meeting on Critical Border Studies: Comparative perspectives to deconstruct and answer exceptionality". PhD Candidate Mirco Buoso presented some of the findings of the Elastic Borders research project and engaged in debate with other participants.
Project Leader Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata and Postdoctoral Researchers Dr. Laura Jung and Dr. Chiara Pagano, as members of the Cluster "Migration, Borders, and Mobilities in, around, and across Europe," co-organized a transdisciplinary lecture series featuring a distinguished group of scholars, journalists, and activists working on critical aspects of contemporary dimensions of the European border regime. The lecture series took place between April and June 2023.
Dr. Chiara Pagano traveled to Tunis to present the special issue "Libye(s) en devenir" she co-edited with Dr. Chiara Loschi on May 25, 2023.
The Elastic Borders team organized a panel discussion during the "Law Faculty Day" of the University of Graz, on May 5, 2023, titled "Borders Beyond Law: The EU’s Elastic Borders", where Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata, Dr. Laura Jung, and Dr. Chiara Pagano presented their research.