Political theorists and philosophers have often portrayed rational reflection on the politics and ethics of border control as a recent phenomenon. The emergence of new ways of studying and reasoning about migration and its regulation was, however, at the heart of the formation of the modern disciplines and human sciences in the final decades of the Nineteenth Century. This seminar explores the development of these intellectual approaches to the regulation of borders together with a study of contemporary political theory on borders and belonging. The goal is to develop a new intellectual history of migration and border control that casts new light on contemporary normative and political debates and controversies. Readings include Sidgwick, Weber, Simmel, Du Bois.