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 2022: January 25 to May 8
• Fall 2022: TBA

Program Application Deadlines 

• Fall 2022: March 15, 2022
• Spring 2023: September 15, 2022

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)