Dr Jussi P. Laine
IAS Residential Fellow
University of Eastern Finland
Dr Jussi P. Laine is Professor of Multidisciplinary Border Studies at the Karelian Institute of the University of Eastern Finland and holds the title of Docent of Human Geography at the University of Oulu. An internationally recognised scholar of borders and bordering practices, he served from 2013 to 2021 as President of the Association for Borderlands Studies, the leading global organisation dedicated to advancing research on international border regions.
Grounded in human geography yet distinctly interdisciplinary, his work integrates perspectives from international relations, geopolitics, political sociology, anthropology, history, and psychology. His research examines the multiscalar production, negotiation, and contestation of borders, with particular attention to how bordering processes shape state power, territoriality, citizenship, and identity formation. His recent scholarship focuses on borderland resilience and comprehensive security, analysing how border regions navigate geopolitical realignments, migration dynamics, and hybrid security pressures. He has contributed to debates on border mobility, migration governance, the ethics and politics of borders, and questions of ontological (in)security, and regularly provides expert counsel to the Finnish government on these issues. Across these themes, he emphasises the lived experiences of borderlanders and the need for more inclusive, empirically grounded understandings of how borders function in times of uncertainty and transformation. Dr Laine's work is widely published and actively engaged with international research networks, policy communities, and cross-border cooperation initiatives, seeking to broaden the conceptual and methodological horizons of border studies while fostering dialogue across disciplines, institutions, and geopolitical contexts.
During their IAS Fellowship, Dr Laine will be collaborating with Dr Azmeary Ferdoush from the Department of Geography and Environment.