Academic Program

“This program is life changing and something I will hold in my heart and mind forever.”~Program Participant

Border Studies was by far the best part of my Earlham experience. The program is structured in such a way that every piece of your life during the semester (from homestays to internships to classes to trips) are interconnected build on each other, and the faculty value each of those experiences as an opportunity for personal, academic, and emotional growth, rather than simply focusing on the academic side of things. I think Earlham, and higher ed generally, could grow a great deal from this approach to learning” ~Program Participant Asa Kramer-Dickie

The Border Studies Program is centered in rigorous academic work, including classroom study, meaningful community engagement, and personal experiences and reflection. You will participate in two core seminars that explore the topics of settler colonialism, approaches to decoloniality, critical race theory, queer theory, transnational feminisms, women of color and indigenous feminisms, neoliberalism, mass incarceration, environmental justice, food sovereignty, social movements, and abolition.

The program also includes a travel component, which may take you to central and southern Mexico, El Paso, and throughout the Arizona/Sonora borderlands, where you will learn from community members and organizations as well as engage in service to support grassroots efforts occurring at different sites. Furthermore, you will be immersed in an extended field study placement (internship) with one of many community organizations and schools in the Tucson area. The field studies class, which you will take in conjunction with your internship, will help you to contextualize the social justice issues that community organizations and groups contend with in the borderlands. Lastly, through the Spanish class and associated community engagement, as well as home life with host families in Tucson, you will continue to strengthen your Spanish language knowledge, practice and/or comprehension.
Program Courses

The program curriculum includes four courses that together result in 18 credits:

Movement and Movements: A Political Economy of Migration Seminar (4 credits) This class provides robust insight into the global political and economic trends that drive and condition patterns of transnational migration in North America and beyond. This biweekly seminar places current trends in historical and geographic context and considers a variety of alternatives and solutions proposed by distinct sectors of society in Mexico and the United States. Topics considered include: settler colonialism, critical race theory, immigration law, neoliberalism, mass incarceration, social movements, and border abolition. Reading assignments are designed to complement and provide background and context for the people, places, and topics approached throughout the BSP semester. (At Earlham College, this course meets a social science requirement and the Diversity–International requirement.)

Routes y Raíces: Towards Collective Power (4 credits) To better understand the place and moment that we presently inhabit, it is important to examine it and the past both in its myriad voices and in its silences. This class engages with the histories that have shaped the economic, political, and cultural landscape of the borderlands and beyond. It is not a comprehensive history, but one chosen to highlight spaces and moments that can serve to develop critical analytical tools and challenge hegemonic and reductive narratives of the spaces we reside and move through. This class uplifts the writings of indigenous peoples, BIPOC – particularly women of color – activists, organic intellectuals, and voices from the ‘Global South.’ We will examine a number of interrelated topics and struggles, including: decoloniality, immigration, the prison-industrial complex and detention, border militarization, social and environmental movements, art, and representation. Knowledge is produced in a number of spaces, within and outside academia, and is shaped by different individual and collective experiences – so our class materials will reflect that. (At Earlham College, this course meets a social science requirement and the Diversity–Domestic requirement.

Borderlands Field Study Practicum (6 credits) The Border Studies Program (BSP) engages in a pedagogical practice known as praxis, or the spaces in which contemplation and action come together. The practicum structure of this course means that, in addition to intellectual learning, students will also gain practical skills and experiences. For many students, their field-study site is one of the most enriching, thought-provoking, challenging, and informative aspects of their time in the Border Studies Program. The primary component of this course will be the eight hours that students spend every week at their field-study site. The practicum course also meets two hours a week, during which students explore themes of personal identity and social justice, engage in dialogue with community leaders from field-study sites, and collectively troubleshoot issues that arise. The culmination of the field-study practicum is a required 10-to-15-page auto-ethnography, discussing pertinent experiences at the organization as viewed in a self-reflective analysis of your role and positionality(-ies) at the site. For more information on the internships and field studies sites please check out the Supervised Field Study Page.

Español in the Borderlands (4 credits) Learning a new language — or giving priority to a language other than English — is a political act. In schools, an emphasis on non-English languages as ‘foreign’ maintains the status quo. This course will be different from other language classes you may have taken, as it will be taught through a content-based approach and will give priority to the voices of those most affected by unjust systems. We will be very intentional to learn Spanish as a language of the real people who speak it, and we will explore themes that directly relate to their experiences, as opposed to studying Spanish as a language of ‘the Other’ as is commonly done in ‘foreign’ language classes across the U.S. Through the Spanish language, we will explore certain themes of the program, such as border enforcement, neoliberalism, ethnic studies, feminism, free trade, food justice, and more. This course would not exist without the input and centering of a multitude of teachers throughout Tucson. Lastly, this course gives us the opportunity to explore together how our language(s) inform(s) how we view our own identities, our interactions with other people, and our political views. (At Earlham College, this course meets a humanities requirement.)   OR

Spanish and Storytelling in the Borderlands: Languages of the Future (4 credits) This class expands on language acquisition and the political economy of the Spanish language in the borderlands via reading and reflection of texts and cultural materials. It will focus on the concepts of translanguaging, language ideologies, and Storytelling as a venue for linguistic inclusion. This course takes advantage of the pedagogical possibilities of the mixed classroom (the coexistence of students with different language learning backgrounds in the same pedagogical setting) to create a living language laboratory where the different traditions and registers of the Spanish Language are celebrated. This is achieved not only by focusing on linguistic identities and storytelling as a venue for social justice as core topics, but also by reflecting on how language frames the narratives about the region and the North-South relations. By reading exemplary texts to explore the topics relevant in the Border Studies Program (identity formation, migration politics, centering and marginalization, sites of knowledge production, etc.), and using the methodologies of the seminar and the creative writing workshop to reflect on these issues, students come to understand not only the nature of languages and their literatures, but also how multilingualism and diversity can critically inform their own views of the world.

Traditional Track Environmental Justice and Sustainability Track
Movement and Movements (PAGS 441, 4 crs.) Movement and Movements (POLS 4xx, 4 crs.)
Routes y Raíces (PAGS 442, 4 crs.) Routes y Raíces (POLS 4xx, 4 crs.)
Borderlands Field Study Practicum (POLS 4xx, 6 crs.) Borderlands Field Study Practicum (POLS 4xx, 6 crs.)
Choice of:

  • Español in the Borderlands (OFFC 441, 4 crs.); or
  • Spanish and Storytelling in the Borderlands (ENG 3xx, 4 crs.)
Choice of:

  • Español in the Borderlands (OFFC 441, 4 crs.); or
  • Spanish and Storytelling in the Borderlands (ENG 3xx, 4 crs.)

 

Course code Department
ENG English – Creative Writing
OFFC Off-Campus Study
PAGS Peace and Global Studies
POLS Politics

Language Learning

The borderlands is a multilingual region, which presents rich opportunities for linguistic and cultural immersion. You will no doubt hear Spanish, English, and Spanglish being spoken regularly, in addition to O’odham and Yoeme. The Border Studies Program offers ample opportunity for exposure to the Spanish language through the Spanish Language Program, travel, and the homestay. Additionally, each academic course incorporates readings and/or guest speakers in Spanish, and several of the program’s weekly activities incorporate Spanish as well.

The Border Studies Spanish Program includes three components:

  • Español in the Borderlands meets weekly with all Border Studies students (see the Program Courses section above for more information)
  • Community Spanish Classes, which meet one evening per week for eight weeks
  • And for fluent Spanish speakers and other interested students, participation in a Creative Writing Workshop which provides an opportunity to engage in storytelling as a way of reflexion on language and community development.

Community Classes

The Community Spanish Classes are open to members of the Tucson social justice community and are divided into three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced (Creative Writing workshop). Each class is taught by a native speaker teacher.

  • The beginner class is designed for students with one year of classes or less and focuses on gaining basic conversational skills
  • The intermediate level, geared toward students with one to two years of classes, provides students with the opportunity for extra speaking practice as well as some instruction in grammar.
  • The advanced level functions as creative writing workshop and is discussion-based, with an emphasis on writing, vocabulary development and is designed for students with three or more years of classes.

Speaker Series 

  • Each semester the Speaker Series will feature an invited guest (writers, scholars, activists or members of the language community like the Language Justice Collective), that will share their experiences and knowledge with students.

Preparation in Spanish

While there is no formal language requirement for the program, you are encouraged to arrive in Tucson with basic Spanish conversational skills. Those students that have no experience with the language may choose to gain some language skills through one of the following:

How BSP participants improve their skills in Spanish

  • By living with a Spanish-speaking or bilingual homestay family while in Tucson
  • By taking advantage of opportunities when appropriate to interact in Spanish throughout extended travel seminars in Mexico
  • Choosing to read some assignments in Spanish or write field journal entries in Spanish
  • By participating in a field study placement where Spanish is the dominant language
  • Engaging in a language exchange with a Tucson community member
  • Immersing themselves in the language as much as possible through Spanish language podcasts (Radio Ambulante), T.V., music, news (Democracy Now! en español), etc.
  • Community Language Classes with native speaking volunteer teachers who facilitate classes for Border Studies students alongside the Tucson social justice community
  • Guest speakers in Spanish and other classes
  • Weekly content-based language classes that incorporate salient topics such as border enforcement and militarization, free trade agreements, food justice, language justice, ethnic studies, art, etc.

 

“My learning experience was packed and stressful. It was also hugely satisfying and enlightening. I’m ready for anything now.” ~Program Participant

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Contact & Location

Phone
(765) 983-1424
Address

1st Floor Landrum Bolling Center
801 National Rd W
Richmond, IN 47374
Richmond, IN 47374

Office Hours

Monday 8:30am - 12pm; 1pm-5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 12pm; 1pm-5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 12pm; 1pm-5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 12pm; 1pm-5pm
Friday 8:30am - 12pm; 1pm-5pm