Beyond Borders. Culture, Language, and Identity in European Integration
Beyond Borders. Culture, Language, and Identity in European Integration
Organized by Universitat de Girona (UdG) | Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN)
October 21 and 22, 2025
Girona. Faculty of Arts, Universitat de Girona.
The conference Beyond Borders: Culture, Language, and Identity in European Integration will bring together experts, politicians, academics, and community members to reflect collectively on the following aspects:
- How broad cultural expressions (from languages, literature, history, tourism, gastronomy, landscape, etc.) can foster mutual understanding and cooperation between neighboring regions.
- Success (and failure) stories where culture has been a driving force for cross-border cooperation.
- How different identities can enrich cooperation initiatives.
- Strategies to promote, question, hybridize, and preserve cultural and linguistic identities in border regions and throughout Europe.
- The role of languages as a vehicle for communication and cultural exchange.
- The role of shared cultural heritage. Successful cross-border cultural projects.
- Educational programs that promote multilingualism, intercultural understanding, and cross-border cultural exchange.
- How local, regional, and national identities can coexist with a broader European identity.
The conference is jointly organized by the University of Girona (UdG) and the Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN), with the support of the Borders in Globalization-21st Century project.
#15 Frontlines Are Everywhere | Chris Teuton and Roger Fernandes, Stories as Transformation
featuring Chris Teuton (Cherokee Nation) and Roger Fernandes (Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe)
In this episode, Jeff is joined by Chris Teuton from the Cherokee Nation and Roger Fernandes from the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe. They discuss storytelling as a powerful tool for transformation, childhood education, and connecting with community teachings – while sharing a few stories along the way!
BIG Coffee Talk — Relational Restoration Decolonizes Globalization
with Raven Borsey and Morgan Brown | University of Victoria, BC | 10:00AM PST, June 9, 2025
In Person: CFGS C168 (Sedgewick building, University of Victoria). The meeting will take place from 10am to 11am PST.
Raven Borsey and Morgan Brown are joining us for a special BIG_Lab Coffee Talk led by the Indigenous Internationalisms group to discuss their restoration work in relationship to the life and waters of Xw’ullemy (the Salish Sea bioregion), including efforts to protect the salmon amidst climate change and depleting fisheries, the restoration of ancestral plant medicines and seed rematriation, and more.
Xwesultun Raven Borsey is from Lummi Nation and is a graduate student in cultural anthropology at Western Washington University. He is a Young Tribal Leader and Research Fellow with the Setting Sun Institute. His work with Setting Sun Institute includes helping to publish ‘Reefnetters of the Salish Sea,’ the final thesis of world-renowned anthropologist Wayne Suttles.
Morgan Brown is a Tsimshian mother and Environmental Education Coordinator for the Swinomish Tribe who empowers Indigenous youth through traditional plant medicine, first foods, and language revitalization. Her work includes cultivating an educational ethnobotanical garden, revitalizing ancestral trade practices, and healing generational trauma with teachings rooted in kinship and stewardship.
Join us in person at Sedgewick C168 in the Centre for Global Studies on the UVic campus. The meeting will take place from 10am to 11am PST.
#10 Frontlines Are Everywhere | Janelle Niles, Decolonizing…One Joke at a Time
featuring Janelle Niles (Sipekne’katik Nation, Black – Mi’kmaq)
Program Manager
Caitlin Janzen
Caitlin Janzen is the Program Manager for BIG Lab. Caitlin brings over fifteen years of research experience to this role, having worked in several universities and research institutes across Canada. Combining formal training in social sciences, sociology, and policy-based research with years of learning from the diverse communities she been honoured to partner with, Caitlin’s outputs reflect her dexterity across interdisciplinary and intersectional frameworks and methods such as feminist theory, decolonizing and Indigenizing approaches, and arts-based approaches to research and education. She is the co-editor of the recently published Contemporary Vulnerabilities: Reflections on Social Justice. Caitlin has also had the opportunity to share her passion for qualitative research methodologies with undergraduate students as a Contract Lecturer. While she continues to publish in peer-reviewed journals, Caitlin is particularly interested in innovative forms of knowledge mobilization and building partnerships with stakeholders within and well beyond the academy.
Prior to joining BIG Lab, Caitlin worked in research administration at the University of Calgary where she supported postdocs and faculty members from all disciplines in applying for Federal and international funding. This experience has further her development as a successful grant writer.
Caitlin is thrilled to contribute to the vibrant culture of inquiry at CFGS by supporting high-impact and policy-relevant research in BIG Lab. She is also extremely grateful to return to the beautiful territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples.
Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow – Carleton University
Victor Konrad
Victor Konrad teaches geography at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He is a former president of both the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States and the Association for Borderlands Scholars, and he is a recipient of the Donner Medal. Author of more than one hundred publications, he has been the founding director of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program and has devoted his career to higher education advancement and development between these neighbouring countries. He has been a visiting professor at various universities in China, the United States, and Europe. His research is centred on the transfer of culture across borders, and he has published extensively about Native American encounters with Europeans, cultural landscape transitions, and Canada-U.S. borderlands.
#8 Frontlines Are Everywhere — Angela Grier, On the Frontlines of Mental Health
featuring Angela Grier (Piikani, Blackfoot)
In this episode, Jeff and Angela discuss the crisis of mental health in Indigenous communities, the role of Buffalo Treaty in community healing, the power of Indigenous resilience, emotions as the language of the spirit, and ways communities are breaking through intergenerational trauma.
Angela Grier (M.Ed) is a Registered Provisional Psychologist from the Piikani First Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Her spiritual name is Piiohksoopanskii (Singing Loudly Far Away). For over 25 years, she has been working and supporting First Nation/Indigenous peoples and communities through direct and systemic experience including Indigenous psychology and counselling, Indigenous and child/youth rights advocacy, adult education/post-secondary, elected leadership, extensive executive experience, non-profit, public administration and Blackfoot ways of knowing.
Listen to Episode #8 on YouTube.
#7 Frontlines Are Everywhere — Aaju Peter, Inuit Self-Determination Amidst Shape-Shifting Colonization
featuring Aaju Peter (Inuk lawyer, activist, filmmaker, educator, and clothing designer)
Aaju Peter CM and Dr. Jeff Ganohalidoh Corntassel talk about promoting education in Inuit communities, challenges to food sovereignty in the Arctic, the role grief plays in resilience, and more in Episode #7 of Frontlines Are Everywhere.
Aaju Peter is an Inuk lawyer, activist, filmmaker, educator, and clothing designer. She is on the frontlines of defending the rights of Inuit, including the right to an education and to engage in seal hunting. The documentary Twice Colonized (2023) follows Aaju’s efforts to establish a permanent Indigenous forum at the EU while she undergoes a personal journey of loss and healing.
Listen to Episode #7 on YouTube.
#6 Frontlines Are Everywhere — Flora Northwest, Breaking Intergenerational Colonial Cycles
featuring Flora Northwest (Samson Cree Nation)
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of abuse and sexual violence in residential schools and may be triggering.
Flora Northwest of Samson Cree Nation joined us on September 30th, Canada’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, to share her story as a survivor of Ermineskin Residential School. Flora was among the elders who shared their stories with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and later met with Pope Francis when he visited Canada in 2022. Flora talked about her journey to healing, ways to support younger generations, and education as a tool for empowerment.
Listen to Episode #6 on YouTube.
BIG Podcast #32 — “Borders and Ports of the Future”
featuring Alan Bersin, Executive Chairman of Altana AI and former U.S. Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection
Ports of Entry (PoE) are vital nodes of global connectivity, they serve as entry and exit points for global trade. Ports (seaports, airports, etc.) often serve as checkpoints for the movement of people and goods, they are interfaces between land territories and maritime/air spaces which symbolize the meeting between cultures and economies, but also the challenges linked to national security and border regulation. With the rise of connectivity and digitalization, PoE face increasing challenges in data management and cybersecurity. With AI and new technologies, a new paradigm is emerging with new concepts as federated learnings, trusted networks, and signal risk sharing. We will discuss all this, borders and globalization 2.0 with Alan D. Bersin.
Listen to Episode #32 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!
Alan Bersin is on the the Chairman of the Advisory Board at Altana AI. He has held numerous high-level positions at the federal, state, and local levels of government. Most recently, after serving as the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Bersin served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy and Chief Diplomatic Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Previously, he was Secretary of Education in California, the Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California and the Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative at the Department of Justice. He also served as Vice President for the Americas and on the Executive Committee of INTERPOL Bersin is the Inaugural North American Fellow at the Wilson Center, a Senior Fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and the Executive Chairman of Altana Technologies.
