Our papers trace the mobility of peoples and the circulation of ideas surrounding colonization and punishment, illustrating how these concepts were transformed, applied, and contested across imperial contexts. By framing displacement as a global endeavor, the panel illuminates the intricate connections between expansionist ambitions, carceral projects, and migration schemes, bridging the divides between cities and their places of incarceration, colonial worlds, and north-south distinctions.

Central to our work are questions such as: How were concepts of migration and punishment related? What was the role of imperial borders in (re)imagining labor and reform? In what ways did ideas of redemption and discipline shape settler colonial projects? How were categories of deviance challenged in these societies? And how did legal frameworks converge—or diverge—across imperial state-building projects? To address these lines of inquiry, we adopt a transnational perspective that integrates micro scales and the everyday experiences of historical actors to better understand how these large processes of transformation developed (and adapted) locally.