"Americas Sire Novi Orbis Nova Descripto" Photo Courtesy of the Newberry Library, Chicago

Vol. 3, Issue 2/ December 2000  

The latest edition of the American Heritage Dictionary tells us that the word "border" has eight different definitions (four different meanings as a noun and four more meanings as a verb). In response to the polysemy of the term "borders," we cast a wide net for this issue. Although the pieces included here do not touch on every possible definition of "borders," they explore the term as it applies to a wide variety of physical (and less tangible) boundaries--local, national, international, real, imagined, and ever-shifting. Our inclusion of the on-line Border Studies exhibition from the Texas Humanities Resource Center also introduces the idea of cyberspace as a "borderless" region, ripe for exploration through the humanities.