Challenging Conceptions of “Borders” and “Race”: Q&A with E. Tendayi Achiume

E. Tendayi Achiume, Ashvin B. Chhabra and Daniela Bonafede-Chhabra Member in the School of Social Science, comes to the Institute from Stanford Law School. Her research focuses on the international legal frameworks that govern migration, racism, and xenophobia. In particular, she considers how colonialism and other forms of empire have historically shaped these international legal frameworks and how they continue to do so in the present. 

What will be the focus of your IAS Membership?

Some of my past work has focused on the right that nation states have to exclude non-citizens, and how that right comes to be international legal doctrine. While I am at the Institute, I hope to expand my analysis beyond nation states and start thinking about corporations. More specifically, I will consider how both colonial corporations and those in the present have constituted borders and international migration. 

Have any IAS scholars, past or present, influenced or impacted your research? 

The Institute has such a long tradition of welcoming influential scholars that it would be impossible to enumerate them all! Restricting myself only to recent scholars, I have been influenced by two Members in particular: Darryl Li (2023–24) and K-Sue Park (2021–22). Li, who is an international lawyer with a background in anthropology, had a significant impact on my work. His research on race, colonialism, and international legal doctrine has been incredibly illuminating for me. Park is another scholar whose work has shaped my thinking. Although she focuses on U.S. legal scholarship rather than international law, her work on how the United States’s public and private regimes of settler colonial racial domination have shaped contemporary approaches to (self)deportation, for example, have been really helpful to my own thinking. Both scholars engage with themes of race, borders, and empire, and I regularly draw on their work to refine my own research. 

Do you have any items on your bucket-list to complete while you are in Princeton?

I didn't have any bucket list items until shortly after my arrival at IAS, when I found a really interesting connection between the research that I am doing at the Institute and the history of one of its close neighbors: Princeton University. In my research, I am thinking about the role of transnational corporations in imperial domination, including as it relates to natural resource extraction. One of the corporations that I am trying to learn about is the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, a company to which the University has ties. I’m curious to learn more about Princeton's links to Firestone, and what those links might reveal about the nature of borders, legacies of wealth accumulation, and contemporary corporate responsibility for transnational systems of injustice. 

What is one unexpected thing you can't live without as a researcher?

I can't live without a sketchbook with blank, ivory-colored pages—no grid or ruled lines. This allows me to write, draw, and organize my thoughts without constraints. It serves multiple purposes, from notes and to-do lists to diagrammatic representations of my arguments. A colleague of mine once said that if you can't diagrammatically represent your thesis, then you don't have a thesis. I don't know if that's true, but I definitely still try to see if I can put together a diagrammatic representation of my arguments. I typically fail!

Is there a word or term that you use in your research that most people wouldn't know? If so, what is it?

In my research, I don't necessarily use terms that most people wouldn't know. Instead, I work with commonly used terms like "borders" and "race," but I approach them from a perspective that challenges popular conceptions. For instance, many people think of borders as fixed points that keep out "bad" individuals and let "good" ones in. However, my research—like that of many Members currently at the Institute—suggests that borders are more complex, mobile, and attach to different bodies in diverse ways. Their function isn't as simple or legitimate as commonly believed. Similarly, with "race," popular definitions often focus on personal identity, but my work explores how race operates as a concept, structure, and institution in legal, political, economic, and social contexts. These common terms, when examined closely, reveal complexities that are often overlooked in everyday usage.

IAS has a long history of collaboration across the four Schools housed on campus. Tell us about a collaboration that has positively impacted your work.

For me, collaboration is at the heart of the most generative forms of knowledge production. One particularly impactful collaboration that I have been involved in was when I worked with another lawyer, a historian, and an anthropologist to think through the borders of Southern Africa, examining how colonialism shaped these borders and considering anti-colonial conceptions of the region's boundaries. This collaboration was incredibly enriching, as my colleagues brought different perspectives to the questions I'm interested in, enhancing my legal perspective. As a legal scholar, I find that collaborating with other disciplines helps me better understand the contexts in which the law operates and informs my thinking on what it might mean to orient the law in more just directions. This multidisciplinary approach is especially valuable in law, where studying in isolation often results in divorcing legal concepts from their real-world effects.

Now thinking outside of academia, who do you consider to be one of your role models and why?

My grandmother. She's just phenomenal. One defining aspect of her life is that she navigated the world on her own terms, which I believe were inconceivable to the people and institutions around her that dictated how one should live. I find that truly, truly inspiring.

What is the best part of your work day? 

The best part of my work day is when I have the opportunity to really follow the questions I'm thinking through. This manifests in different ways, but often involves reading what others have written about a topic and allowing my intellectual curiosity to guide my learning. I particularly enjoy those moments when, as a result of having this unencumbered time to pursue questions, I'm able to see things from a new perspective. While these moments don't occur every day, when they do, they are undoubtedly a highlight. Being here at the Institute provides more opportunities for such rewarding experiences.