This lecture by UiT Associate Professor in Border Studies Ekaterina Mikhailova will provide a historical overview of the three decades of Norwegian-Russian cross-border cooperation at the local level between Sør-Varanger and Pechenga municipalities. The lecture will cover the time span from early 1990s to early 2020s, with a focus on 2010s. It will offer some empirical data on how cooperation functioned and was perceived at that time on both sides of the Norwegian-Russian border. The historical analysis will be complemented with insights from border studies and cross-regional comparisons with other borderlands. By zooming in to local Norwegian-Russian interactions and their challenges, the lecture will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of bilateral relations in the North.
The lecture is organised in cooperation with the course HIS-2009 and is open to other students interested in the topic.