Frontex and the University: Positivist Dissonance and the Institutionalisation of Border Violence through Research

The paper examines the existing relationships between universities and Frontex, investigating and problematising the intersection between the higher education sector and the violence of the European border regime. We introduce the concept of positivist dissonance to conceptualise these relationships within the wider “industrial-military-academic complex”. Several cases are examined, ranging from the Horizon projects involving both universities and Frontex to the research grants offered by the agency and its teaching programmes. We also discuss the case of our department at the Polytechnic of Turin, which has provided cartographic services to Frontex. The paper offers a twofold contribution. First, expanding on available scholarship, it shows how universities function as key actors in the enforcement of regimes of border control. Second, it provides conceptual and empirical insights to centre academia as a prime ground not only of critical thinking but also of direct struggle against the violence of the EU border regime.