Scholars from around the world will be at UC Davis for the Comparative Border Studies Initiative symposium “Borders: What’s Up With That? Displacements, Belongings, Rights.”

A symposium at UC Davis on April 5 will gather historians, cultural studies scholars, artists, designers, gamers and others from diverse disciplines to explore the intersection of visual culture and drone warfare.

For months, the world has watched refugees move toward and into Europe from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many fleeing wars and poverty. Although this surge of refugees – more than 500,000 this year – surprised many, it could have been predicted, according to Maurice Stierl, a visiting scholar in the new UC Davis Comparative Border Studies Initiative.