Victor A. Konrad

Biography

In 1990, Victor Konrad accepted the position as founding Executive Director of the Fulbright Program between Canada and the United States. Dr. Konrad has devoted his career to higher education advancement and development between these neighbouring countries. His research is centred on the transfer of culture across borders, and he has published extensively about Native American encounters with Europeans, cultural landscape transitions, and Canada-U.S. borderlands. Professor Konrad has taught at universities in the United States and Canada, and from 1980 to 1990 served as Director of the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine.

Research Interests

• Culture transfer across boundaries
• Cultural geography of New England
• Geography of North American relations

Research Contributions, Last Six Years

Refereed contributions

Konrad and M. Kelly, eds. (2021) Borders, Culture and Globalization: A Canadian Perspective. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.

Konrad and M. Kelly (2021) “Culture, Globalization, and Canada’s Borders.” In V. Konrad and M. Kelly, eds. Borders, Culture and Globalization: A Canadian Perspective. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 7-38.

Konrad (2021) “Border Cultures: A Retrospective. Part 1. A Context for Border Cultures and Conversations with the Curator.” In V. Konrad and M. Kelly, eds. Borders, Culture and Globalization: A Canadian Perspective. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 107-114.

Kelly and V. Konrad (2021) “Borders, Culture, and Globalization: Some Conclusions, More Uncertainties, and Many Challenges.” In V. Konrad and M. Kelly, eds. Borders, Culture and Globalization: A Canadian Perspective. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 319-336.

Konrad (2021) “Expanded Border Images and Aligned Border Narratives: China Encounters and Negotiates the Border with Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam,” In J. Schimanski and J. Nyman, eds. Border Images, Border Narratives. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. Rethinking Borders Series, 127-47.

Konrad and R. Widdis, eds. (2021) Borders and Bordering in Atlantic Canada. Victoria: Borders in Globalization e-book. https://biglobalization.org/outputs/bigbooks

Konrad and R. Widdis (2021) “Introduction: Borders, Bordering and Borderlands in Atlantic Canada.” In V. Konrad and R. Widdis, eds. Borders and Bordering in Atlantic Canada. Victoria: bigbooks, 10-22.

Jagger and V. Konrad (2021) “Cross-boundary climate and energy policy in eastern Canada and New England.” In V. Konrad and R. Widdis, eds. Borders and Bordering in Atlantic Canada. Victoria: bigbooks, 81-101.

Hu and V. Konrad (2021) “Repositioning security spaces of exclusion, exception, and integration in China-Southeast Asia borderlands.” Regions and Cohesion 11, 2: 1-25.

Ptak and V. Konrad (2021) “’Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones’”: How borders, energy development and ongoing experimentation shape the dynamic transformation of Yunnan Province.” Journal of Borderlands Studies 36, 5 https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2021.1924074

Konrad (2020) “Belongingness and Borders,” In J. W. Scott, ed. A Research Agenda for Border Studies. Oxford: Edward Elgar, 107-26.

Ptak, J. Laine, Z. Hu, Y. Liu, V. Konrad and M. van der Velde (2020) “Understanding borders through dynamic processes: Capturing relational motion from Southwest China’s radiation center, Yunnan Province,” Territory, Politics and Governance https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1764861

Konrad (2020) “A Durable Permeation: Imagination, Motion and Differentiation at the Border between Canada and the United States,” In P. Otto and S. Berthier-Foglar, eds. Borders Permeable and Liminal: Ethnicity, Identity, and Place in the United States. New York: Berghahn, 194-212.

Correa-Cabrera and V. Konrad, eds. (2020) North American Borders in Comparative Perspective. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Konrad, (2020) “Re-Imagining the Border between Canada and the United States,” In G. Correa-Berea and V. Konrad, eds. North American Borders in Comparative Perspective. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 72-97.

Correa-Cabrera and V. Konrad (2020) “Introduction. The International Boundary Perimeter of the United States of America: Two Borders and Many Borderlands.” In G. Correa-Cabrera and V. Konrad, eds. North American Borders in Comparative Perspective. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 3-22.

Konrad and G. Correa-Cabrera (2020) “Conclusion. Toward North American Integration?” In G. Correa-Cabrera and V. Konrad, eds. North American Borders in Comparative Perspective. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 361-378.

Magnus, H. Hallgrimsdottir, N. Bates-Eamer and V. Konrad (2020) “Overgrowing the Border? An examination of Cascadian culture and cannabis legalization,” Journal of Borderlands Studies 35, 4: 505-26.

Konrad and E. Brunet-Jailly (2019) “Approaching borders, creating borderland spaces, and exploring the evolving borders between Canada and the United States,” The Canadian Geographer/Le geographe canadien 63, 1: 4-10. Editors, “Borders, Borderlands and Bordering in Canada”, 4-111.

Konrad, J. Laine, I. Liikanen, J.W. Scott and R. Widdis (2019) “The Language of Borders,” In S. Brunn and R. Kehrein, eds. Handbook of the Changing World Language Map. New York: Springer, 2175-91. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02438-3_52

Hu and V. Konrad (2018) “Narrating Territory and Security in Remote Border Places: The Kokang Dispute and the Evolving Borderlands between China and Myanmar,” Geopolitics 23, 1: 147-79.

Konrad (2016) “Continental East-West and Global North-South? Re-Imagining (B)Orders in Globalization,” International Studies 50, 1&2: 16-34.

Konrad (2015) “Evolving Canada-United States Cross-Border Mobility in the Cascade Gateway,” Research in Transportation Business and Management 16, September, 121-30.

Konrad (2015) “Toward a Theory of Borders in Motion,” Journal of Borderlands Studies 30, 1: 1-17.

Konrad, regional editor, (2015) North America, Central America and the Caribbean. In E. Brunet-Jailly, ed., Encyclopedia of Border Disputes. Also author of entries: “Dixon Entrance”, “Machias Seal Island”, “Alaska Panhandle”, “Portland Canal”. Los Angeles: ABC Clio/Praeger.

Konrad, (2015) “From Spontaneity to Corridors and Gateways: Cross-Border Movement between the United States and Canada,” in M. van der Velde and T. van Naerssen, eds., Borders and Trajectories: Thresholds to Migration. Aldershot: Ashgate, 121-36.

Konrad (2014) “Borders and Culture: Zones of Transition, Interaction and Identity in the Canada-United States Borderlands,” Eurasia Border Review 5, 1: 41-57.

Konrad, (2014) “Borders, Bordered Lands and Borderlands: Geographical States of Insecurity between Canada and the United States and the Impacts on Security Primacy,” in E. Vallet, ed., Borders, Fences and Walls: State of Insecurity? Aldershot: Ashgate, 85-102.

Non-refereed contributions (top three only)

Konrad (2019) “Borderlands Culture” in T. Yamazaki, ed. The Encyclopedia of New Geopolitics. Tokyo: Maruzen.

Konrad (2019) “State Avoidance and Frontier Adaptation: Engaging the Borderlands of Southeast Asia”Journal of Borderlands Studies 34, 2: 479-82.

Konrad and L. Rouviere (2016) “La <<ligneverte>>, l’ouverture de la frontiere chypriote et le potential de reunification,”Diplomatie 80 (Mai-Juin 2016), 20-25.

Forthcoming contributions

Konrad (2021) “Re-Shaping Cross-Border Governance in the Pacific Northwest Borderlands,” In B. Dupeyron and T. Payan, eds. Agents and Structures in Cross-Border Governance: North American and European Borders in Comparative Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (in press)

Konrad (2021) “Boundaries, Borderlands and Culture in a World of Flows,” In S. Brunn and R. Hu, eds., China’s Cultural Borderlands and Landscapes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (submitted)

Konrad (2021) “Culture and Borders in Globalization.” In E. Brunet-Jailly, ed. Borders in Globalization: Themes. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press (in press).

Konrad (2021) “The Cultural Dimension of Borders.” In E. Brunet-Jailly, ed. Borders in Globalization: A Text for Border Studies. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press (in press)

Konrad (2021) “Bordering Ontario: An Introduction and Overview of the Borders and Bordering of Ontario.” In H. Halgrimsdottir and N. Bates-Eamer, eds. Borders in Globalization: Regional Perspectives. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press (in press)

Konrad (2021) editor of special section and author of introduction: “New Directions at the Border.” Journal of Borderlands Studies 36, 5 (forthcoming)

Konrad and G. Correa-Cabrera (2021) “Borders in Transition: North American Borders in Comparative Perspective, Revisited.” L’ Espace Politique 45 (forthcoming)

Correa-Cabrera and V. Konrad (2021) “The future of North American borders in the post COVID-19 era.” IdeAs-Idees d’Ameriques (under review)

Konrad (2021) “The ‘Iroquois du Nord’ of the Late 17th Century : Re-visiting the Haudenosaunee on the North Shore of Lake Ontario.” In Ronald F. Williamson, ed. Iroquois du Nord. Ottawa: National Museum History (forthcoming)

Konrad and A-L. Amilhat Szary (2022) Border Culture: Theory, Imagination, Geopolitics. London: Routledge (manuscript submitted)

Other Research Contributions During the Last Six Years:

I am completing the research agenda for the Borders in Globalization (BIG) project as co-director, one of the core group of ten scholars guiding the project, and supervisor of postdoctoral fellows. Scholarly and administrative duties include leading the Culture theme, and the Atlantic and Ontario regions (see http://www.biglobalization.org). In 2015-2019, I also held brief visiting professorships in China and the Netherlands. In 2014, I was Visiting Professor at the Karelian Institute of the University of Eastern Finland, one of the leading border studies programs in the world, with more than a dozen renowned scholars, an equal number of post-doctoral fellows and numerous masters and PhD students.  While in Finland, I participated in the first ABS World Congress of Border Studies. In 2014, I made presentations at universities in France, the Netherlands, India, China, Finland and Norway. In July, 2014, I was the keynote speaker at a border conference in Kunming, China. Recent contributions to research and advancement of knowledge include presentations at Border Regions in Transition (BRIT) conferences, and annual presentations at the Association of Borderlands Studies. I serve on editorial boards of the new online journal Borders in Globalization Review, Journal of Borderlands Studies, and Canadian-American Public Policy. I participate extensively in evaluating papers and book manuscripts for publication, assessing the work of senior undergraduate and graduate students, and judging grant applications. In 2014, I was president of the Association of Borderlands Studies. In September 2021, I will begin to chair the academic board for the new SSHRC partnership 21^st Century Borders led by Professor Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly at the University of Victoria.

Most Significant Career Research Contributions

Beyond Walls and North American Borders in Comparative Perspective are considered major, comprehensive statements in border studies and received strong reviews. Borders, Culture, and Globalization was published in June, 2021. The articles are current published research in leading journals and the most recognized and quoted works from two major research directions in my early career when I published more than 50 articles, monographs and edited volumes.

Konrad (2015) “Toward a Theory of Borders in Motion” Journal of Borderlands Studies 30, 1: 1-17. This article is second in number of citations for this journal.

Correa-Cabrera and V. Konrad (co-editors) (2020) North American Borders in Comparative Perspective. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Konrad and M. Kelly, eds. (2021) Borders, Culture, and Globalization: A Canadian Perspective. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.

Konrad (lead author) and H. N. Nicol (2008) Beyond Walls: Re-Inventing the Canada-United States Borderlands. Border Regions Series. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

Konrad (lead author), R. Bonnichsen and V. Clay (1983) “Soil Identification of Ten Thousand Years of Prehistoric Human Activity at the Munsungan Lake Thoroughfare, Maine,” Journal of Archaeological Science 10: 13-28.

Konrad (1981) “An Iroquois Frontier: The North Shore of Lake Ontario during the Late 17^th Century,” Journal of Historical Geography 7: 129-144. Retrospective, November 3, 2019, University of Toronto (Publication forthcoming)

Career Interruptions and Special Circumstances

As Director of the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine in the 1980s, I managed to sustain my scholarly productivity although the pressures of administration, fundraising and public outreach consumed an increasing amount of my time and attention. From 1990 to 2001, I was founding Executive Director of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Commission, and focused mainly on building the Fulbright Program in Canada. In 2003, after retirement and administrative leave, I began to re-enter the field of border studies and establish a new research agenda while engaging in teaching at Carleton University, board of directors’ commitments, and consulting.

Contributions to Training

During the last six years, I have had opportunities to train senior undergraduates and graduate students although my Adjunct Research Professor appointment at Carleton University does not require or situate me for this work. From 2005-2012, I supervised more students, but since then I have coordinated other faculty supervisions under the auspices of Borders in Globalization. In addition to the students listed below, I have engaged both graduate and senior undergraduate students in research at Carleton, the Border Policy Research Institute, universities in Europe and in Asia, and, particularly, the University of Eastern Finland.

PhD Karen Everett (Trent University) PhD Committee. Comprehensive Exams, November, 2014.

PhD Co-Supervisor: Yuli Liu (Beijing Normal University) Visiting researcher Geography, Carleton University, 2015-16.

MA International mentor: Maxim Ruhr (Radboud University, Netherlands) Visiting researcher in Geography, Carleton University, April-June, 2016.

Post-doctoral supervisor, DGES Carleton: Dr. Laetitia Rouviere (PhD Grenoble) and Dr. Melissa Kelly (PhD Uppsala), 2015-19.

Memberships

• Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, President, 1989-1991
• Association of American Geographers, Councillor, 1983-1986; Chair AAG-CAG Committee, 1984-87, 1990-92
• Canadian Association of Geographers
• The Eastern Historical Geography Association
• The Canadian Association of American Studies
• Editorial Boards of The Canadian Geographer, The Great Lakes Geographer, The Canadian Review of American Studies
• Book Review Editor and occasional Editor, The American Review of Canadian Studies
• Listings in Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in Technology Today and several professional rosters

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