Main Conference Program

24–25 September 2026

Almaty, Kazakhstan & online
Hotel Kazzhol Almaty, 127/1 Gogol Street, Almaty

The program below presents the main academic part of Beyond Dividing Lines: Comparative Insights into Cross-Border Cooperation Worldwide. The conference as a whole takes place on 23–26 September 2026, with additional conference activities on 23 and 26 September.

Please note: the program is tentative and may be subject to change. Updates will be posted on the conference website.
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Thursday, 24 September

Main conference sessions

09:00–09:30
Registration
09:30–10:00
Opening Session
10:00–11:30

Session 1. Models, Institutions, and Limits of Cross-Border Cooperation

  • Christophe Sohn (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research, Luxembourg) Recoding the Border: A Semiotic Regime Approach to Cross-Border Cooperation
  • Claude Ewert (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg) Common Ground or Ground for Exclusion? Favourable Conditions and the Limits of Cooperation at the Franco-Luxembourgish Border
  • Laurie Trautman (Western Washington University, United States) Cross-Border Cooperation in the Canada-United States Borderlands: A Networked Model of Informality, Resiliency, and Vulnerability
  • Ekaterina Mikhailova (UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway) Weaving the Borderlands Back into Bilateral Relations: The Case of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan
11:30–12:00
Coffee Break
12:00–13:30

Session 2. Informality, Mobility, and Borderland Communities

  • Nona Shahnazarian (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia; Centre for Independent Social Research Armenia, Armenia) Russia’s Imperial Frontiers: Kirvaluk and Informal Cross-Border Cooperation in the South Caucasus
  • Yejia Ke (Sophia University, Japan) Shaping Cross-Border Labor Cooperation: Ethnic-Kinship Networks in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderland
  • Daniel Heinz (University of Osnabrück, Germany) Re-Bordering from Below: Truck Drivers at the Kazakhstan-Russia Border since 2022
  • Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi (Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India) Women at the Border: Songs, Care Work, and Informal Cross-Border Cooperation
14:30–16:00

Session 3. Geopolitics, Strategic Competition, and Border Connectivity

  • Akihiro Iwashita (Nagasaki University, Japan) A Crisis for Eurasian Border-Crossing under Cold War 2.0
  • Chisako T. Masuo (Kyushu University, Japan) Cooperation for Competition: China’s Satellite Strategy and Beyond
  • Azhar Serikkaliyeva (Almaty Management University; SDU University, Kazakhstan) ONLINE From Transit Corridor to Cross-Border Region? Assessing Kazakhstan-China Border Cooperation through the Khorgos Case
16:00–16:30
Coffee Break
16:30–18:00

Session 4. Shared Environmental and Technological Risks across Borders

  • Görkem Atsungur (American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan) Cooperating Across Depletion: Localized Water-Sharing Practices in the Borderlands of the Chu and Talas River Basins
  • Krishnendra Meena (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India) Flood Warning Cooperation at India-Nepal Border
  • Yesbol Sartayev (Nagasaki University, Japan) Nuclear Power Plants and Borders: Cross-Border Cooperation in Managing Transboundary Radiation Risks

Friday, 25 September

Parallel sessions and final roundtable

09:00–10:30 · Parallel Sessions

Room A

Session 5A. Everyday Governance, Informality, and Porous Borders

  • Gokul M A (Mary Matha Arts and Science College, India) Sovereignty vs. Porosity: Comparative Institutional Frameworks Governing the Indo-Nepal Open Border and the Kazakhstan-Russia Border Zone
  • Diego Andres Pinzon Quesada (University College London, United Kingdom) Making Borders Work: Informality, Spatial Currency, and Negotiating Border Spatial Development in the Colombia-Venezuela Borderlands
  • Shubhanginee Singh (Tallinn University, Estonia) ONLINE Producing Peace at the Border: Mobility, Bureaucracy, and Everyday Life in the Eastern Himalayas
  • Yimer Ali (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia) ONLINE Beyond the Rhetoric of Unity: Local Cross-Border Cooperation amid Ethno-Federal Fragility in the Horn of Africa

Room B

Session 5B. Central Asian Borderlands: Development, Resources, and Local Cooperation

  • Vera Smirnova (SDU University, Kazakhstan) Development of Cross-Border Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the Agricultural Sector: Participants, Directions, and Conditions
  • Nurdaulet Zharmukhan (SDU University, Kazakhstan) Cross-Border Identity of Aktau City
  • Kodirjon Eshonkulov (Independent Researcher, Republic of Korea) ONLINE Afghanistan’s Koshtepa Canal Project as a Catalyst for Climate Migration in the Downstream Amudarya River: The Case of Khorezm Region and the Republic of Karakalpakistan
  • Debasish Nandy (Kazi Nazrul University, India) ONLINE An Examination of Kazakhstan’s Collaboration with Uzbekistan Regarding Border Management and Interpersonal Relations: A Study of the Inclusive Neighborhood Strategy
10:30–11:00
Coffee Break

11:00–12:30 · Parallel Sessions

Room A

Session 6A. Borders under Pressure: Security, Surveillance, Crisis Governance, and Peacebuilding

  • Tapas Pal (Raiganj University, India) Cross-Border Walk for Peace: Shared Knowledge Beyond Dividing Lines
  • Syeda Nada Qadri (Aligarh Muslim University, India) Algorithmic Borders and Human Solidarities: AI, Surveillance, and Cross-Border Interaction in Conflict Zones
  • Nikolai Grudtsyn and Anatoly Chistobaev (St. Petersburg State University, Russia) ONLINE Public Health in the Russia-Kazakhstan Borderland: Regional Tuberculosis Incidence Dynamics, Mortality Patterns, and Spatial Autocorrelation, 2019–2024
  • Ibrahim Kone (Independent International Relations Consultant) ONLINE Regional Integration in the Context of COVID-19: IGAD and the Management of Displacement Crisis

Room B

Session 6B. Cross-Border Regions and Communities: Identity, Dialogue, and Cooperation

  • Sergei Golunov (SDU University, Kazakhstan) Kazakhstan’s Borders in the Context of Central Asian Cross-Border Cooperation
  • Lena Merkle (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany) Liminality in Cross-Community Dialogue
  • Ramazan Bakyradinov (Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan) ONLINE Exploring the Discursive Construction of the Altai Region across Kazakh, Chinese, and Russian Official Sources
  • Giorgi Pareshishvili (Caucasus International University, Georgia) ONLINE Georgian-Azerbaijani Relations since 2003: Ethnic Georgian Communities in Cross-Border Territories as Actors of Bilateral Cooperation
13:30–15:00
Final Roundtable
Opportunities for Future Cooperation: Research, Publications, Networks, and Joint Projects
15:00–15:30
Closing Session