Introduction: The Case for Globalizing Gender and Borderlands

This introductory chapter outlines our approach to globalizing the study of gender and borderlands and how that has informed the book’s structure. The book is the most expansive analysis of the twin terms gender and borderlands to date, drawing on case studies from North, Central, and South America; western, eastern, and southern Africa; western, north, and eastern Europe; South Asia and eastern Asia; Australia; and the South Pacific. The introduction highlights the book’s comparative framework, through which subsequent chapters concerned with analyzing comparable gendered experiences in different geographical regions are placed in dialogue with each other, alongside more synergetic frameworks in which conceptual, theoretical, and/or methodological insights from multiple geographies and disciplines are combined. Next, the introduction explains the editors’ approach to selecting and supporting contributors through the publication process, and how that changed during the project, both because of global circumstances and because of our own reflections on our scholarly ethos and critical and personal positionalities. Finally, the introduction draws together some of the main themes of the book, emphasizing the comparative and interdisciplinary insights that have emerged, and spotlighting areas of future research it is hoped the work will stimulate.