Frontiers and mobilities : the Frontiers of the Roman Empire and Europe.

Abstract

This paper addresses the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site’ and seeks to introduce into this initiative some concepts derived from recent writings on contemporary mobilities and bordering, exploring the possibility of creating greater engagement between the two academic fields of ’border-studies’ and ‘Roman Frontier Studies’. Exploring the relationship between the Roman Frontiers initiative and the European Union’s stated aims of integration and the dissolution of borders, it argues the value of crossing the intellectual borders between the study of present and past in order to promote the value of the Roman frontiers as a means of reflecting upon contemporary problems facing Europe. This paper addresses the potential roles of Roman Frontier Studies in this debate by emphasising frontiers as places of encounter and transformation.