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9Oct

Not just lines on a map: borders in a changing world

Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
In-person and online public event (Old Theatre, Old Building)
Thursday 9 October 2025 6.30pm - 8pm

We are joined by Maya Goodfellow, Tarsis Brito and Luke de Noronha who will each draw on their areas of expertise to discuss the implications of borders in a changing world.

Borders are not just lines on a map marking geographical boundaries but are important for maintaining countries’ nationhood, identity, and security. Due to their importance, borders are also increasingly politicised to define who belongs and who does not, who is legally allowed to enter, and who has the right to own or live in a certain piece of land. Borders are connected to many of the debates of today and challenges of tomorrow, from the refugee crisis to decolonisation and global conflicts. So, how can we better understand how borders are connected to inequalities? Should we re-evaluate how we think about borders altogether? And what will the future of borders look like?

Meet our speakers and chair

Tarsis Brito (@tarsisdaylan) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE. He holds a PhD in International Relations from LSE. Tarsis has served as Co-Editor and Associate Editor at Millennium: Journal of international Studies (vols. 50-51) and as Coordinator at Doing International Political Sociology PhD Series (2022-23). Based on his award-winning doctoral dissertation, his book project is entitled (Un)settling Whiteness: Race, Colonialism, and Violence at the European Borders.

Maya Goodfellow (@MayaGoodfellow) is Presidential Fellow in the Department of International Politics at City St George's University of London. She is the author of Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats and writes regularly for The Guardian. Her current project examines the rise of private security companies in immigration enforcement in the UK. Beyond this, her work focuses on racial capitalism, immigration and bordering, the politics of international development, and animal rights.

Luke de Noronha is Associate Professor in Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation at UCL. His first book, Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of deportation to Jamaica, was published in 2020. Luke produced a podcast with deported people in Jamaica, Deportation Discs, a riff on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, in which deported people tell their stories via their life's soundtrack.

Armine Ishkanian (@Armish15) is Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme and Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE.

More about this event

Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (@AFSEE_LSE) is a fellowship programme for activists, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners who believe inequality can be defeated. We are building a catalytic values-led global community of people who are committed to using collective leadership to work towards social and economic justice for all. AFSEE is housed at the LSE International Inequalities Institute.

Join us on campus or register to watch the event online at LSE Live. LSE Live is the home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEEvents

Podcast and video

A podcast of this event is available to download from Not just lines on a map: borders in a changing world.

A video of this event is available to watch at Not just lines on a map: borders in a changing world.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.

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Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

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