Eddie Joel Pesante Gonzalez

In the aftermath of Brexit, borderland farmers at the Irish border are still unclear how their everyday life has been impacted, or not, by changes in agrarian governance. This ethnographic project will examine the post-Brexit rural life and livelihoods of borderland dairy and beef farmers to illuminate how cross-border farming practices sustain and transform “everyday cross-border regionalisms,” the routine practices of navigating between two states (Wilson 2024; Helleiner 2016; Strüver 2005). Based in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, this project will ask: 1) How are borderland farmers adapting their livelihoods post-Brexit? 2) In what ways do shifts in the governance of agriculture shape border-making practices? 3) In what ways are bureaucrats, politicians, and farming organizations changing tactics, post-Brexit and how do they impact, or not, the governance of borderlands and the maintenance and meanings of cross-border regionalisms? 4) How did ethnonationalist conflict shape rural life in the Irish borderlands, and in what ways, if any, has Brexit complicated the ongoing and always tenuous peace process? By asking these questions, it will advance anthropological contributions regarding borderlands, rural development, and cross-border regionalism.