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Making Borderscapes: Place Making and Citizenship in Mosney’s Transitions

Friday, March 17, 3-4 p.m.

SN-2025

Geography Blue Box Seminar

Dr. Katherine Side

Department of Gender Studies

In this paper, I trace the historical and material transition of the geographic locale of the site of Mosney in County Meath, Ireland to examine relationships among borderscapes, belonging, and citizenship. For over eight decades, the geographic locale of Mosney has retained varied ties to ideals and aspirations of citizenship, although the site itself has undergone transition. Existing as a primarily agricultural site, it was a chosen as a site for the development of Ireland’s first holiday village; later, it was distinguished as cultural site of Ireland’s community games, and then was transitioned into its current use, as a direct provision center to accommodate asylum seekers in an institutionalized setting. In this presentation, I trace the site’s construction as a borderscape and its various relations to gendered citizenship. Through the lens of intentional place making, I demonstrate how Mosney’s history has been continuously made and re-made as a borderscape that establishes, solidifies, and disrupts social relationships of belonging and unbelonging within Ireland and within Europe.

Presented by Department of Geography

Event Listing 2023-03-17 15:00:00 2023-03-17 16:00:00 America/St_Johns Making Borderscapes: Place Making and Citizenship in Mosney’s Transitions Geography Blue Box Seminar Dr. Katherine Side Department of Gender Studies In this paper, I trace the historical and material transition of the geographic locale of the site of Mosney in County Meath, Ireland to examine relationships among borderscapes, belonging, and citizenship. For over eight decades, the geographic locale of Mosney has retained varied ties to ideals and aspirations of citizenship, although the site itself has undergone transition. Existing as a primarily agricultural site, it was a chosen as a site for the development of Ireland’s first holiday village; later, it was distinguished as cultural site of Ireland’s community games, and then was transitioned into its current use, as a direct provision center to accommodate asylum seekers in an institutionalized setting. In this presentation, I trace the site’s construction as a borderscape and its various relations to gendered citizenship. Through the lens of intentional place making, I demonstrate how Mosney’s history has been continuously made and re-made as a borderscape that establishes, solidifies, and disrupts social relationships of belonging and unbelonging within Ireland and within Europe. SN-2025 Department of Geography