Teaching Workshop: Performance and Borders
A.Y. 2026/2027
Learning objectives
Through this laboratory, students will: 1) examine how performance operates as a constitutive force in the making, maintenance, and contestation of borders across territorial, social, and symbolic registers; 2) analyze a broad range of border performances, situating each within its political and material conditions; 3) develop nuanced frameworks for understanding the complicities, ambivalences, and limits of performative border-crossing; and 4) engage with interdisciplinary theoretical tools drawn from border studies, performance studies, migration studies, and critical geography to analyze how bodies, movement, and representation intersect with regimes of sovereignty and control.
Expected learning outcomes
1) Students will critically analyze how performances participate in both the reproduction and the contestation of borders, demonstrating an understanding of performance as a constitutive rather than merely reflective practice; 2) Students will identify and compare border performances across a range of geopolitical and cultural contexts, articulating how each operates within specific regimes of mobility, sovereignty, and exclusion; 3) Students will evaluate dominant narratives of transgression and resistance in performance scholarship, producing more nuanced accounts of how performance can simultaneously reinforce, negotiate, and challenge borders; 4) Students will design and present a research project that examines a specific border performance, analyzing its political stakes and material effects.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Giudizio di approvazione
Assessment result: superato/non superato
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The laboratory investigates the relationship between performance and borders. It begins from the premise that borders are not simply pre-existing lines or structures but are continually enacted through ceremonies, patrols, passport checks, parades, everyday practices, and artistic spectacles. These practices also help produce the states, citizens, and nations that borders appear merely to separate.
The laboratory examines how embodied and aesthetic practices reproduce, negotiate, and contest borders. It does not treat performative engagement as necessarily subversive, but takes seriously the role of performance in maintaining and legitimating border regimes as well as challenging them. Drawing on theoretical tools from performance studies and border studies, the course considers cases involving colonialism, contested borders, de facto states, the partition of Cyprus, Taiwanese and Greenlandic sovereignty, the maritime spectacle of migration, and no-border politics.
The course is organized into seven meetings:
1. Defining Our Terms: Borders and Performance. Introduction to the laboratory's central concepts through Francis Alÿs's The Green Line and the Israel-Palestine border.
2. Borders, Liminality, and Performativity. Performativity, repetition, and the production of subjects through Turner, Austin, Althusser, and Butler, together with Marina Abramović and Ulay's The Lovers: The Great Wall.
3. Borders, Archives, and Repertoires. Embodied memory, national belonging, and bordering practices, with Adela Peeva's Whose Is This Song?
4. Imperial Lines: Colonialism and Imperialism. The colonial production of borders and its contemporary afterlives through Curzon, Fanon, Mbembe, and Scego, with Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia's The Couple in the Cage.
5. Performing Sovereignty, (Re-)Making Borders: Recognition and Global Belonging. Performances of sovereignty in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Taiwan, and Greenland.
6. Unmaking Borders? Counter-Performance and Its Limits. Open-border politics, Lampedusa's counter-spectacles, the Declaration of Nutopia, the circulation of the Alan Kurdi image, and transborder forms of religious and nationalist solidarity.
7. Workshop: Embodied Borders, Normative Movements. Critical movement workshop and final student presentations.
The laboratory examines how embodied and aesthetic practices reproduce, negotiate, and contest borders. It does not treat performative engagement as necessarily subversive, but takes seriously the role of performance in maintaining and legitimating border regimes as well as challenging them. Drawing on theoretical tools from performance studies and border studies, the course considers cases involving colonialism, contested borders, de facto states, the partition of Cyprus, Taiwanese and Greenlandic sovereignty, the maritime spectacle of migration, and no-border politics.
The course is organized into seven meetings:
1. Defining Our Terms: Borders and Performance. Introduction to the laboratory's central concepts through Francis Alÿs's The Green Line and the Israel-Palestine border.
2. Borders, Liminality, and Performativity. Performativity, repetition, and the production of subjects through Turner, Austin, Althusser, and Butler, together with Marina Abramović and Ulay's The Lovers: The Great Wall.
3. Borders, Archives, and Repertoires. Embodied memory, national belonging, and bordering practices, with Adela Peeva's Whose Is This Song?
4. Imperial Lines: Colonialism and Imperialism. The colonial production of borders and its contemporary afterlives through Curzon, Fanon, Mbembe, and Scego, with Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia's The Couple in the Cage.
5. Performing Sovereignty, (Re-)Making Borders: Recognition and Global Belonging. Performances of sovereignty in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Taiwan, and Greenland.
6. Unmaking Borders? Counter-Performance and Its Limits. Open-border politics, Lampedusa's counter-spectacles, the Declaration of Nutopia, the circulation of the Alan Kurdi image, and transborder forms of religious and nationalist solidarity.
7. Workshop: Embodied Borders, Normative Movements. Critical movement workshop and final student presentations.
Prerequisites for admission
An excellent command of English is required, as the laboratory will be conducted entirely in English. There are no other prerequisites.
Teaching methods
The 20-hour laboratory, conducted entirely in English, combines short introductory lectures, seminar discussions of the readings, case-study analysis, and the viewing and discussion of audiovisual materials. Students will test the course's theoretical tools through collective discussion and an individual presentation.
The final meeting includes a critical movement workshop informed by Fluxus principles. Using simple movement scores, the workshop explores how borders are felt and reproduced through the body. The activities require neither prior movement training nor close physical contact and may be modified or skipped according to each participant's needs.
The final meeting includes a critical movement workshop informed by Fluxus principles. Using simple movement scores, the workshop explores how borders are felt and reproduced through the body. The activities require neither prior movement training nor close physical contact and may be modified or skipped according to each participant's needs.
Teaching Resources
Readings:
Althusser, Louis. Excerpt from Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, trans. Ben Brewster. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971, 170-177.
Altınay, Rüstem Ertuğ. "Muslim Abjections, Transtemporal Identifications: The Politics and Aesthetics of Islamic Youth Dramatic Literature in Turkish." Youth Theatre Journal 38, nos. 1-2 (2024): 57-70.
Anderson, Bridget, Nandita Sharma, and Cynthia Wright. "Editorial: Why No Borders?" Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees 26, no. 2 (2011): 5-18.
Austin, J. L. "How to Do Things with Words: Lecture II." In The Performance Studies Reader, 4th ed., edited by Henry Bial and Sara Brady. New York: Routledge, 2025, 177-182.
Balibar, Étienne. "What Is a Border?" In Politics and the Other Scene. London: Verso, 2002, 75-86.
Bryant, Rebecca. "Sovereignty in Drag: On Fakes, Foreclosure, and Unbecoming States." Cultural Anthropology 36, no. 1 (2021): 52-82. https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/4463.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (1988): 519-531.
Coplan, David B. "Border Show Business and Performing States." In A Companion to Border Studies, edited by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 507-521.
Curzon of Kedleston, George Nathaniel. Excerpts from Frontiers: The Romanes Lecture 1907, 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908, 7-8 and 55-58.
Fanon, Frantz. Excerpt from The Wretched of the Earth, trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press, 2004, 1-23.
Jacobsen, Marc. "Greenland's Arctic Advantage: Articulations, Acts and Appearances of Sovereignty Games." Cooperation and Conflict 55, no. 2 (2020): 170-192.
Johnson, Corey, Reece Jones, Anssi Paasi, Louise Amoore, Alison Mountz, Mark Salter, and Chris Rumford. "Interventions on Rethinking 'the Border' in Border Studies." Political Geography 30, no. 2 (2011): 61-69.
Kaiser, Robert J. "Performativity and the Eventfulness of Bordering Practices." In A Companion to Border Studies, edited by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 522-537.
Mazzara, Federica. Reframing Migration: Lampedusa, Border Spectacle and the Aesthetics of Subversion. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019, 1-18.
Mbembe, Achille. "Bodies as Borders." From the European South 4 (2019): 5-18.
Scego, Igiaba. "Sausages." Translated by Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto. Metamorphoses 13, no. 2 (2005): 214-225. https://www.warscapes.com/retrospectives/food/sausages.
Schechner, Richard. Excerpts from Performance Studies: An Introduction, 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2020, 1-24, 231-234, and 259-267.
Taylor, Diana. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003, 1-52.
Turner, Victor. "Liminality and Communitas." In The Performance Studies Reader, 4th ed., edited by Henry Bial and Sara Brady. New York: Routledge, 2025, 91-98.
van Houtum, Henk, and Ton van Naerssen. "Bordering, Ordering and Othering." Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 93, no. 2 (2002): 125-136.
Vis, Farida, and Olga Goriunova, eds. Excerpts from The Iconic Image on Social Media: A Rapid Research Response to the Death of Aylan Kurdi. Sheffield: Visual Social Media Lab, 2015, 11-18, 47-55, and 61-63.
Weber, Cynthia. "Performative States." Millennium: Journal of International Studies 27, no. 1 (1998): 77-95.
Wilson, Thomas M., and Hastings Donnan. "Borders and Border Studies." In A Companion to Border Studies, edited by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 1-25.
Audiovisual and performance materials discussed in class:
Francis Alÿs, The Green Line (2004), including interviews with Rima Hamami and Eyal Weizman.
Marina Abramović and Ulay, The Lovers: The Great Wall (1988).
Adela Peeva, dir., Whose Is This Song? (2003).
Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia, dirs., The Couple in the Cage: Guatinaui Odyssey (1993).
Ziynet Sali, Deli Divanenim, directed by Nihat Odabaşı (2018).
TaiwanPlus News, "President Tsai Welcomes RuPaul's Drag Race Winner Nymphia Wind to Office."
John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Declaration of Nutopia, press conference, New York, 1 April 1973.
Althusser, Louis. Excerpt from Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, trans. Ben Brewster. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971, 170-177.
Altınay, Rüstem Ertuğ. "Muslim Abjections, Transtemporal Identifications: The Politics and Aesthetics of Islamic Youth Dramatic Literature in Turkish." Youth Theatre Journal 38, nos. 1-2 (2024): 57-70.
Anderson, Bridget, Nandita Sharma, and Cynthia Wright. "Editorial: Why No Borders?" Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees 26, no. 2 (2011): 5-18.
Austin, J. L. "How to Do Things with Words: Lecture II." In The Performance Studies Reader, 4th ed., edited by Henry Bial and Sara Brady. New York: Routledge, 2025, 177-182.
Balibar, Étienne. "What Is a Border?" In Politics and the Other Scene. London: Verso, 2002, 75-86.
Bryant, Rebecca. "Sovereignty in Drag: On Fakes, Foreclosure, and Unbecoming States." Cultural Anthropology 36, no. 1 (2021): 52-82. https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/4463.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (1988): 519-531.
Coplan, David B. "Border Show Business and Performing States." In A Companion to Border Studies, edited by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 507-521.
Curzon of Kedleston, George Nathaniel. Excerpts from Frontiers: The Romanes Lecture 1907, 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908, 7-8 and 55-58.
Fanon, Frantz. Excerpt from The Wretched of the Earth, trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press, 2004, 1-23.
Jacobsen, Marc. "Greenland's Arctic Advantage: Articulations, Acts and Appearances of Sovereignty Games." Cooperation and Conflict 55, no. 2 (2020): 170-192.
Johnson, Corey, Reece Jones, Anssi Paasi, Louise Amoore, Alison Mountz, Mark Salter, and Chris Rumford. "Interventions on Rethinking 'the Border' in Border Studies." Political Geography 30, no. 2 (2011): 61-69.
Kaiser, Robert J. "Performativity and the Eventfulness of Bordering Practices." In A Companion to Border Studies, edited by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 522-537.
Mazzara, Federica. Reframing Migration: Lampedusa, Border Spectacle and the Aesthetics of Subversion. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019, 1-18.
Mbembe, Achille. "Bodies as Borders." From the European South 4 (2019): 5-18.
Scego, Igiaba. "Sausages." Translated by Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto. Metamorphoses 13, no. 2 (2005): 214-225. https://www.warscapes.com/retrospectives/food/sausages.
Schechner, Richard. Excerpts from Performance Studies: An Introduction, 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2020, 1-24, 231-234, and 259-267.
Taylor, Diana. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003, 1-52.
Turner, Victor. "Liminality and Communitas." In The Performance Studies Reader, 4th ed., edited by Henry Bial and Sara Brady. New York: Routledge, 2025, 91-98.
van Houtum, Henk, and Ton van Naerssen. "Bordering, Ordering and Othering." Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 93, no. 2 (2002): 125-136.
Vis, Farida, and Olga Goriunova, eds. Excerpts from The Iconic Image on Social Media: A Rapid Research Response to the Death of Aylan Kurdi. Sheffield: Visual Social Media Lab, 2015, 11-18, 47-55, and 61-63.
Weber, Cynthia. "Performative States." Millennium: Journal of International Studies 27, no. 1 (1998): 77-95.
Wilson, Thomas M., and Hastings Donnan. "Borders and Border Studies." In A Companion to Border Studies, edited by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 1-25.
Audiovisual and performance materials discussed in class:
Francis Alÿs, The Green Line (2004), including interviews with Rima Hamami and Eyal Weizman.
Marina Abramović and Ulay, The Lovers: The Great Wall (1988).
Adela Peeva, dir., Whose Is This Song? (2003).
Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia, dirs., The Couple in the Cage: Guatinaui Odyssey (1993).
Ziynet Sali, Deli Divanenim, directed by Nihat Odabaşı (2018).
TaiwanPlus News, "President Tsai Welcomes RuPaul's Drag Race Winner Nymphia Wind to Office."
John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Declaration of Nutopia, press conference, New York, 1 April 1973.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Assessment is based on active participation in the laboratory; a 5-7 minute in-class presentation, to be delivered on 30 October 2026; and either a five-page final research paper or a performance project accompanied by documentation and a two-page artist's statement informed by the course readings. Final papers and performance projects are due on 11 December 2026.
The final result is recorded as pass/fail. Students must complete all required components in order to pass. Assessment criteria include understanding of the concepts examined in the laboratory; the ability to contextualize and critically analyze a specific border performance; the coherence of the argument or project; engagement with the course materials; and the clarity of the oral presentation and written work. For performance projects, the critical relationship between form, documentation, and argument will also be assessed.
The final result is recorded as pass/fail. Students must complete all required components in order to pass. Assessment criteria include understanding of the concepts examined in the laboratory; the ability to contextualize and critically analyze a specific border performance; the coherence of the argument or project; engagement with the course materials; and the clarity of the oral presentation and written work. For performance projects, the critical relationship between form, documentation, and argument will also be assessed.
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