Border Studies Program

The Border Studies Program (BSP) is a semester-long program based in Tucson, Arizona that consists of homestays, internships in grassroots and/or non-profit organizations and excursions as well as a rigorous 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 to understand and articulate the context and implications of their own positionalities.    

BSP explores urgent contemporary topics that include:

• Transnational migration
• Neoliberal globalization 
• The militarization of policing
• Struggles for environmental justice, ethnic studies and indigenous rights
• Language justice
• Community-building in diverse regions
• Organizing, activism, and movement building

Program Dates

*16 week semester-long program (including a break)

• Spring 2023: January 24- May 7, 2023
• Fall 2023: TBD

Program Application Deadlines

• Spring 2023:
  • Priority deadline: September 15, 2022
  • Final deadline: October 15th, 2022
• Fall 2023:
  • Priority deadline: March 15, 2023
  • Final deadline: April 15, 2023

*Students interested in the spring program can apply by the March or April deadlines and their admission will be prioritized.

Cost and Billing Information

The cost of the Border Studies Program will be announced in March of each year. Students are responsible for travel costs to and from the Program site, for costs of independent travel, for books and materials, for passport, visa and health costs, and for personal expenses.

Students or their home campuses will be billed by Earlham College. Students will inform the Earlham College Center for Global Education whether to bill them directly or to bill their home college.

For students paying for the program directly, the comprehensive program fee for 2021-22 academic year is $24,650. This fee includes: all program tuition and fees, housing and most meals with a host family, a stipend for weekday lunches, all program travel and excursions costs, costs of supporting the field study (internship) placements, and a local transportation pass for Tucson. Not included are: travel to and from Tucson, funds for personal expenses and entertainment, and the cost of maintaining your health insurance.

For students whose colleges pay some but not all costs on their behalf, the fee breaks down as follows:

For more information and to apply:

• If you are an Earlham student, click here
• If you are a non- Earlham student, click here

“BSP will completely change your worldview (but for the better).”  ~Program Participant

“The Border Studies Program remains one of Oberlin’s top 10, and certainly it’s number one in terms of student satisfaction and engagement. Whatever magic spells you’re casting, keep it up!” ~Mike Rainaldi, Director of International Programs at Oberlin College (through 2021)