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In its simplest form, a border is a barrier; a way of letting some things in and keeping others out. 

While we often think of borders in a physical sense––a line on a map, a concrete wall or a series of checkpoints––there are also intangible borders that shape the ways we think, learn and teach. 

This month, scholars will gather on CU Boulder’s campus for the Center for Media, Religion and Culture’s ninth international conference, Imagined Borders, Epistemic Freedoms: The Challenge of Social Imaginaries in Media, Art, Religion and Decoloniality. The conference will be held from Jan. 7 through 11, with several events that are free and open to the public.

“This is about trying to challenge people to think about other ways of seeing the world,” says Nabil Echchaibi, the center’s associate director.

Colonization and dispossession have weakened, misplaced, and destroyed the cultural and intellectual heritage of many people, Echchaibi says. Through this process, many cultures have lost their voices––or their voices have gone unnoticed. 

“For this conference we want to invest in cultures, histories and civilizations––groups who have been speaking for quite some time but people have not been paying attention, and modes of knowing that have been silenced,” he says.

Free and public events will include:

• Keynote: “Colonial Diffractions in Illiberal Times,” Ann Laura Stoler

  • ​9 to 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 8 

• Keynote: “The Decolonial Everyday: Reflections on Indigenous Education and Land-Centered Praxis,” Leanne Betasamo-Sake Simpson

  • 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 9

• Workshop: “On the Decolonial Hows: Interrogating and Making (Our) Praxis,” Catherine Walsh

  • 9 to 10:30 a.m., Friday, Jan. 10

• Keynote: “Once Were Maoists: Third World Currents in Fourth World Anti-Colonialism,” Glen Coulthard

  • 2 to 3 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 11

Registration for the full conference––including daily lunch and refreshments––is $250 for babyֱ��app and $150 for non-OECD county residents and students, with a $50 day rate available as well. Visit the conference website to learn more and register.