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.

Announcing NEW track:
Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Borderlands
Coming in fall semester 2024, the program will include a new program track in Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Borderlands (in addition to the traditional track listed below).


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

In addition, the new track in Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Borderlands also addresses:

  • land and water use
  • resource extraction
  • climate change
  • food justice
  • traditional ecological knowledge
  • grassroots and indigenous movements

Program Dates

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

  • Spring 2024: January 23 – May 5, 2024
  • Fall 2024: August 20 – December 8, 2024
  • Spring 2025: January 21 – May 4, 2025

Program Application Deadlines

  • Fall 2024:
    • Priority deadline: March 15, 2024
    • Final deadline: April 15, 2024
  • Spring 2024:
    • Priority deadline: September 15, 2024
    • Final deadline: October 15th, 2024

*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 (starting in Fall 2023) is $26,020. 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:

Tuition and fees (including excursions) $21,520
Housing $3,375
Meals stipend $1,125

For more information and to apply:

“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)

 

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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