The Mexico-U.S. border is one of the central places where global north and global south clash. On the one hand there is a great economic interdependency between both states as can be seen in the maquiladora industry or the huge share of remittances in the Mexican gross income. In the 1990s this interdependency was further solidified by the free trade agreement NAFTA. On the other hand there is a growing fortification of the border through fences and national security agents and the army in both countries.

Both developments symbolise efforts of different actors to regulate global flows of capital, commodities, migrants, information, identities, drugs etc. through control while at the same time practices against the border regime – like illegalized migration or drug trafficking – occur. The effects of these oppositional practices must be reflected very critically, as they cause new regimes of violence, which can be seen in the brutal drug milieu with thousands of murders during the last years and with the femicides in northern Mexico.

While the general issue of the Mexico-U.S. border isn’t covered in German media or discussions at all, we will discuss these themes together with Melissa Wright. She is Associate Professor in Geography and in Women’s Studies at the Pennsylvania State University and currently teaches and researches as guest lecturer at Institute for Human Geography in Frankfurt. Her research at the border around the issues of the femicides, the maquiladora industry, governmental repression and popular protest covers more than 15 years. (cf. http://www.geog.psu.edu/people/wright/)

The lecture will be in English. In the discussion, statements in German are highly welcomed and will be translated.