51 Knowledge Cultures 2(1), 2014 pp. 51–60, ISSN 2327-5731 THE CROSSINGS: CHILDHOODS, BOUNDARIES AND KNOW LEDGES MAREK TESAR m.tesar@auckland.ac.nz University of Auckland ABSTRACT. Childhoods and borders are intrinsically connected. Childhoods are bound to cross boundaries, encounter borders and engage in the act of ‘crossings’. This paper theorizes how children cross boundaries, and how their childhoods are therefore constantly re-examined, re-negotiated and re-conceptualized at any geo- graphical, or ideological context. This paper deals with the discourses of subjugation and dominance that govern childhoods. It explores the subversiveness of foreign- ness encountered in childhood, and the links between the adult and child worlds. Keywords: childhood; border; subjugation; dominance; foreignness 1. Introduction Childhoods and borders are intrinsically connected: children are bound to cross boundaries, encounter borders and engage in acts of ‘crossings’ in multiple ways. This paper argues that children’s boundary crossing can be also theorized as an act of rebellion, and that in a Havelian sense children can be subjectified as a child-rebel (Tesar, 2012), crossing between dominant and resistant discourses, in both the public and private arenas of their child- hoods. In this sense, childhoods are constantly re-examined, re-negotiated and re-conceptualized in any geographical, or ideological context. The argument that childhoods are secret and cannot be explored has been dis- puted in childhood studies and in the sociology of childhood. Studies of the histories of childhoods, for example, propose ideas about how childhoods are conceptualized, and how childhoods become a celebrated and protected, yet unstable and problematic part of children’s stories. As in this preamble, this paper argues that boundary crossings are not only pleasant and ex- citing, but also very painful and traumatic experiences of childhoods, which play out in the public and private, secret spaces of childhoods. This paper