On February 23, 2022, the Kevorkian Center virtually hosted “Elements of Border and Infrastructure: Water II” with Jatin Dua (University of Michigan), Laleh Khalili (Queen Mary University of London), Nathalie Peutz (NYU-Abu Dhabi), and Atossa Abrahamian (The Nation) as discussant. Dua introduced the conversation through unpacking the territorializing of the sea, expanding on the overlapping claims of protection made by various actors along the Somali coast, from the Navy to pirates. Khalili proceeded to discuss both the divisibility and indivisibility of the sea and encouraged us to think about the neocolonialist nature of corporations - serving as the post-colonial face of previous colonialists in seas and oceans today. Peutz discussed the fluctuating categorization of Yemeni refugees crossing the Red Sea to Djibouti. She concluded by discussing Ethiopian migrants, asserting that although Red Sea travel routes proved perilous, migrants were choosing life by going into the sea through escaping conflict on land. Abrahamian highlighted the overlapping focus on the Arabian Peninsula among the panelists, and the idea of sea borders being more negotiable than land borders. The discussion that followed touched on the parallels between Palestinian and Yemeni refugees, Migrant vs. Refugee categorization, contemporary piracy, imperial systems, materiality, the monopoly on routes, and place making in the sea. We would like to thank our panelists for their insightful presentations, and our discussant and participants for their compelling questions.
