Researchers of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) at the University of Greifswald and the International Border Studies Centre (IBSC) at the University of Gdansk met with colleagues from Chung Anh University, the Korean National Defense University in Seoul and the University of Hokkaido from 25-28 October 2022 to discuss "Borderlands in Comparison: Cooperation and Integration in the Baltic Sea Region and East-Asia". Focusing on the history of concepts and methodological approaches of the social sciences, Alexander Drost (Greifswald) introduced the contingency of border concepts in the Baltic Sea region while Marta Grzechnik (Gdansk) reflected on the newly created western Polish and hence eastern German borderland after World War II. Martin Kerntopf (Greifswald/Jena) explained the impact of EU-norms on bordering in the Baltic Sea Region. The comparison of bordering processes in maritime regional context was followed by a presentation of “The International Politics of Maritime Order in East Asia” by Young-June PARK (Seoul). HJ Naomi CHI from Hokkaido University in Japan reflected on the changing Japanese border regime in her presentation on “Impact of the War in Ukraine in East Asia: Case of Northern Territories and Borderland People in Japan”. Kyoung-Hwa LIM closed the session with a bio-pic of Cho Seung-Bog in “In Search of Neutrality-Oriented Zainichi History: A Post-war History of Cho Seung-Bog, a Korean from Manchuria”. We are looking forward to a fruitful cooperation in a follow-up-workshop in Greifswald and Gdansk in April 2023.
Our colleagues in Seoul published the following report about this year’s workshop: https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20221205021007 (übersetzt von Google: https://www-seoul-co-kr.translate.goog/news/newsView.php?id=20221205021007&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=de&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp)