Border Studies

We all have the responsibility to understand the human, environmental, and societal costs to current and historical border enforcement policies.

The Border Studies Program (BSP) is a semester-long program based in Tucson, Arizona. The program consists of homestays, internships in grassroots and/or nonprofit organizations, and excursions – as well as a community-driven academic curriculum. Immersed in the southern Arizona borderlands, BSP offers students hands-on experience in contemporary justice struggles and an expansive curriculum that valorizes grassroots knowledge and challenges students, staff, and faculty to understand and articulate the context and implications of our own positionalities.

Themes and Commitments

BSP explores urgent contemporary topics in the following tracks:

Migrant Justice

  • Transnational migration studies
  • Neoliberal globalization
  • The militarization of policing
  • Movements for civil rights and environmental justice
  • Indigenous rights and sovereignty in the borderlands
  • Language justice in translanguaging spaces
  • Community-building in the very diverse borderlands
  • Organizing, activism, and movement-building

Environmental Justice and Sustainability

  • Land and water use
  • Resource extraction
  • Climate change
  • Food justice and food sovereignty
  • Environmental racism
  • Traditional and indigenous ecological knowledges
  • Grassroots and indigenous movements

Program Information and Application

Open to undergraduate students from any college or university! The semester-length program is offered in both the fall and spring semesters.

Fall Semester

  • Priority deadline: March 15
  • Final deadline: April 15

Spring Semester

  • Priority deadline: September 15
  • Final deadline: October 15

More information and application:

Border Studies Fast Facts

25

years of academic and cultural immersion in the Mexico/US borderlands – the longest-running off-campus study program focusing on migrant justice!

100%

of Border Studies Program participants engage in a field placement (internship) with a community organization

450+

program alumni from more than 30 participating colleges and universities

>50K

hours of community engagement by program participants with borderlands community and justice organizations

Next steps

EARLHAM ALERT:
We continue to monitor the effects of an industrial fire 1.1 miles from campus.
EARLHAM ALERT:
We continue to monitor the effects of an industrial fire 1.1 miles from campus.