International Comparative Studies major Julia Milch (T ’14) was a member of the “At Home/On the Wall” independent study in Spring 2012. Her project Walls Around the World explores different physical borders around the world. Designed as an introduction to border studies and the construction and maintenance of physical barriers, Julia focused on 6 borders across the globe: Israel-Palestine, US-Mexico, Northern Ireland, Pakistan-India, Botswana-Zimbabwe, and North-South Korea. Julia said, “I chose these areas, specifically, because they included a diverse range of geography and history as well as reasons for why a physical barrier became the ‘necessary solution’ to the problems at hand.”
Walls Around the World examines the historical context surrounding the formation of political walls, their effects on daily life, and the ways that social, political, and economic factors influence life on the borders. Julia built the website in order to encourage others to understand walls and borders, in the hopes that, “we can begin to imagine a less divisive future.”