Moving beyond border studies paradigms dominated by the Mexico–US border, this collection aims to contextualise cultures and communities within a wider global understanding of border thinking. It builds on recent considerations of, and changes to, the cultural life of (and across) the Canada–US border, to prioritise theoretical reflections on representations, identities and policies. Approaching the border as a place, a theory, a practice and a process, this collection draws attention to the ways in which aspects of the Canada–US border itself (re)frame discussions of the borderlands as sites that continue to evoke, invoke and provoke ideas of nation and post nationalism; negotiation and imposition; resistance and refusal.