Is there a concept of Combined Teichmuller space for surfaces with both geodesic boundary and punctures/cusps If we take a sequence of compact hyperbolic Riemann surface with k geodesic boundary components such that the lengths of the geodesic boundary components go to zero, then in the "limit", we should get a surface with k punctures/cusps. Is there a concept of distance ( in Teichmuller theory/ Riemannian geometry ) which would realize this convergence ? I know that there is a concept of Teichmuller space with genus g and k geodesic boundary components and also there is a concept of Teichmuller space with genus g and k cusps with finite area metrics. But is there a concept of Teichmuller space which will unify both of them, i.e. is distance will realize the above convergence and will contain both of the above Teichmuller spaces as subspace ? 
Should we use Gromov-Housdorff convergence to realize the above convergence ?
 A: If you have a compact hyperbolic surface with geodesic boundary $\Sigma$, then you may double the surface along its boundary to get a closed hyperbolic surface $D\Sigma=\Sigma\cup_{\partial\Sigma}\Sigma$, which has an involution $\tau:D\Sigma\to D\Sigma$ which exchanges the two sides and fixes $\partial \Sigma$. One may then identify the Teichmuller space parameterizing hyperbolic structures on $\Sigma$ with geodesic boundary with the subspace of the Teichmuller space of $D\Sigma$ which is fixed under the involution $\tau$ (which as an element of the mapping class group acts by an isometric involution on Teichmuller space of $D\Sigma$). 
The Weil-Petersson metric on Teichmuller space is an incomplete metric. 
Its completion is obtained by appending the Teichmuller spaces of Riemann surfaces with nodes, where some of the curves on the surface have been pinched (one may think of these as hyperbolic metrics with a double cusp, by letting the length of the curve approach zero). The Weil-Petersson metric extends to this completion, as proved by Masur. 
Consider the Teichmuller space of $D\Sigma$, and the corresponding subspace associated to $\Sigma$ (the fixed point set of $\tau$). If one pinches some of the curves associated to the fixed point of $\tau$ on $D\Sigma$, then $\tau$ acts as an involution on the noded surface, and one may append the Teichmuller space of this noded surface invariant under $\tau$ to the Teichmuller space of $\Sigma$ with the Weil-Petersson completion. This gives you the moduli space you're describing of surfaces with geodesic boundary and punctures, and the Weil-Petersson metric gives a well-defined distance function on this space. 
