Bandits, Militants, and Martyrs: Sub-state Violence as Claim to Authority in Late Antique North Africa

Fourth Century North Africa was a site of intense religious and political conflict. Emerging from a period of persecution and newly legitimized by the Roman state, the Christian Church immediately fractured into two competing camps. Now known as the Donatist schism, this fracture was the result of competing claims to religious authority between two camps of bishops, but the doctrinal debate at its core precipitated a specific form of violence: attacks on clergy and property perpetrated by roving groups of militant bandits. Known as circumcellions, these bands acquired a perverse reputation for religious zeal, a desire for martyrdom, and what their opponents described as the ‘madness’ and ‘insanity’ of their violence. Here I analyze sources produced by both Donatists and Catholics to trace patterns of circumcellion violence. I draw on borderland theory and research on non-state violence to argue that such acts were not mad, but rather the result of strategic efforts to consolidate religious and political power. In this, Donatism and the sectarian violence that accompanied it provide important insights into how banditry and peasant rebellions can se.rve as alternate sources of social and political power, avenues through which heterodox movements challenge the power state and religious hierarchies alike

Blak, Bi+ and Borderlands: An Autoethnography on Multiplicities of Indigenous Queer Identities Using Borderland Theory

Indigenous queer people often experience a conflict in identity, feeling torn between long-standing cultures and new LGBTIQA+ spaces; however, conflicts are being reframed by new generations of Indigenous queer academics who consider decolonising ideas about white heteronormativity. The following autoethnography of my own Indigenous queer journey (muru) uses narrative analysis to explore the challenges of living between worlds as well as the difficulties in gaining acceptance from multiple cultures. This story, like many others, highlights the power of narrative as it reflects the nuanced experiences of Indigenous queer people with identity multiplicity via the application of borderland theory. The narrative analysis forefronts the wide impact of internalised phobias (homophobia, biphobia, and racism) and its impact on performative self-expression of sexual identity, self-sabotage, institutionalized racism and shadeism, and community acceptance, particularly for bi+ sexual identities. This article will explore existing literature which illustrates how navigating the multiplicity of identities may result in poorer social and emotional wellbeing, particularly for Indigenous queer youth. The article concludes with final comments and suggests future directions in mixed method research with Indigenous queer Australians to better understand and improve their social and emotional wellbeing.

Gender, Sexuality, and Borders in Popular Culture

The theorizing of gender, sexuality, and borders emerged from borderland theory as conceptualized by Chicana lesbian writer Gloria Anzaldúa. Enacted in this theory are racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender identities and relationships to land, and the U.S.–Mexico border in particular. Borderland theory embraces the immigrants, the exiles, the mixed-race, the queers, the nonnormative, the crossers of binaries, broadly defined. Borderland pedagogies build upon borderland theory, encouraging recognition of diverse experiences, critical and flexible thinking, creativity, and acceptance of one’s contradictions. Popular culture serves as an important tool for borderland pedagogies, both as a resource for classroom teaching and as a broad-reaching medium to promote public learning. Music, film, literature, and television provide rich sources for learning and unlearning. Gender and sexual diversity in borderland popular culture are the outliers of heteronormativity and challenge dualistic notions of sex and gender. The borderland provide the symbolic location of the restrictions and wounds caused by binary thinking, as well as the place to recuperate, to heal, to learn, and to transform.

The Borderland Theory in the Context of Pak-Afghan Border

This paper discusses the Borderland Theory from the perspective of the Pak-Afghan border that gained great momentum in the post-9/11 episode. Borders play the most significant role in determining the relations between the bordering countries. The insurgents use it as a sanctuary after getting their nefarious designs fulfilled. For the very first time in the history of Pak-Afghan relations, Pakistan had to deploy security personnel on its western border in such a great number owing to the greater need for security from this border. Cross border infiltration had a great impact on the security paradigm of Pakistan. Some of the most noteworthy networks that were hotly pursued include the Neo-Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network. Border management, making joint security troops from both the countries for deployment along both sides of the border, while negotiation coupled with diplomacy will do a lot in eradicating terrorism and insurgency across both sides of the border.

Across Bridges and Islands

In this essay, we invoke the work of Gloria Anzaldúa and the broader constellation of borderland theory to make sense of how we have negotiated the boundaries of research in academic environments that have sought to marginalize and diminish our perspectives. Recognizing that academe is disciplined by whiteness, we provide personal reflections as a form of embodied connectivity in an attempt to decolonize communication studies. We use two metaphors—(draw)bridges and islands—to critically (re)imagine identity, difference, and merit in academia.