Border Studies Program

Diego Bustos studied economics and history at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and graduated from the MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. He holds a Ph.D. in Latin America Literature at the University of New Mexico. In 2003 he won the National Short Story Award “Ciudad de Bogota”. His academic research focuses on the relationship between rhetorical strategies present in a corpus of cultural performances and novels, and the imagination on development and middle-class in Brazil, Colombia and the Mexico-US borderlands. With an emphasis on cultural citizenship and transnational discourses on social inclusion, his scholar work informs his approach to teaching language and culture, and vice versa: both imagined as contested fields in the struggle for liberation. His life on the border has reinforced his interests in these topics and the urgency of their articulation within a broader transnational frame. He has been involved in different projects in the region, from the extinct Revista Coroto, based in El Paso, to the Interdisciplinary Colombian Studies Group, in Albuquerque. Also, he is involved in the Colombian Syllabus, a group project intended to situate critically the current social unrest ongoing in his native country. Currently, he is implementing a methodology of Creative Writing for Social Justice as part of the curriculum in Spanish at the Border Studies Program.

Nellie grew up on the borderlands, traditional Hia-Ced O’odham territory, just West of the Tohono O’odham reservation and North of Sonora, Mexico. She is currently undertaking a number of projects documenting the historical and legal significance of indigenous peoples on the borderlands. Her research interests include stories that document indigenous relations across international borders, inspired by her own family history.

Nellie went to undergrad at Arizona State University and had a variety of interesting majors before obtaining a B.A. in Political Science in 2006. After witnessing several forms of human rights abuses during a time of workplace raids, SB1070 (papers please law), ethnic studies bans, and increased militarization, she decided to pursue a higher education in hopes to become better equipped to challenge these xenophobic institutional policies. She obtained her Juris Doctorate with a Certificate in Indigenous Law and Policy at Michigan State University in 2014, where she was active in NALSA (Native American Law Students Association). She is currently working on topics that explore the interrelations between resource extraction, militarization, and settler colonialism on O’odham land.

Dr. Magda Mankel has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Maryland at College Park, where her dissertation was titled “Walking the Migrant Trail: Mobilizing Cultural Heritage and Commemorating Clandestine Migration in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands.” She has prior teaching experience in both traditional (classroom) and fieldwork/off-campus study formats, as well as informal formats such as edutourism groups coming to the Southwest. She was most recently a Program Organizer for Borderlinks, an organization that specializes in introducing short-term delegations (from colleges, churches, civic groups, seniors in lifelong learning programs, etc.) to the issues in the Mexico/U.S. Borderlands. She also has experience as a field folklorist and applied anthropologist and has introduced some of the theory and practice from those fields into the “Movement and Movements” course.

Kate is an activist, cat-lover/ cat mom, horse-back-rider, avid hiker, and mom to Octavio and Ximena. Originally from Champaign, Illinois, Kate has called many places home throughout her lifetime. She attended Beloit College (Beloit, WI) where she majored in Anthropology and Latin American Studies.  She resided in Seattle, Washington, where she attended the University of Washington-Seattle and completed a Masters in Social Work and Masters in Public Affairs.  She also called Chicago, Illinois, home for several years, working at the Cook County Department of Public Health (2002-2006) and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights (2013-2016). Kate came to Tucson for the first time in 2010 as a volunteer with the humanitarian-aid organization, No More Deaths (NMD). It was then that she fell in love with the Sonoran desert, with Tucson, and with the fierce community of activists that reside and resist here. Living in Tucson, she has continued to work and volunteer with NMD – she has served as the Volunteer Coordinator and the Abuse Documentation Coordinator and helped to publish the report “Disappeared: How U.S. Border Enforcement Agencies are Fueling a Missing Persons Crisis“. She has been an Instructor with the Border Studies Program since 2017 and currently oversees the Field Study program component as well as teaching the Field Study Practicum course. But the real teacher here is The Border – Kate is honored to be a part of creating a container for which learning can happen.

Pronouns: They/them/their

Bio. Roger Adkins is a scholar-administrator with a complex profile that includes extensive administrative work and expertise in global learning, ongoing interdisciplinary research and scholarship, and teaching in both domestic and international settings. They are a passionate educator who strives to make global learning accessible for every student, both in on-campus and off-campus settings.

Global Engagement. They studied abroad in Iceland and have led short, faculty-led programs in the UK (England, Wales, and Scotland). They have also visited or worked in: Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and Tunisia.

Areas of Expertise. They are also a dedicated educator who believes in helping today’s students prepare for a world of rapidly evolving circumstances and inevitable shifts in professional life. They have experience administering off-campus study programs; advising and mentoring international students and scholars; working in faculty development for global learning; advocating for and working in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion; fellowships advising and administration; and developing new programs, curricula, and approaches in global learning. Roger also has briefer experience in career education, internships programming, community engagement, and community and employer partnerships.

Portfolio.

• Roger manages the Center for Global Education, which includes: English Language Learners courses; International Student and Scholar Services; and Off-Campus Programs
• They also direct the Border Studies Program (Earlham | Non-Earlham) and the Tibetan Studies in India Program (Earlham | Non-Earlham)
• In addition, they convene the Designation of Distinction in Global Engagement
• They are generally an advocate for students seeking fellowships and other prestigious awards and are the main contact for the Beinecke Scholarship; the Boren Scholarship; the Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship; the Future Nobel Laureates Scholarship; and DAAD Germany scholarships and fellowships
• Teaching and administrative faculty members interested in Fulbright Scholar Awards may also contact Roger for assistance
• Roger is also Alliance Liaison of Earlham College to the Global Liberal Arts Alliance
• Finally, they help to administer global school-of-record agreements with Earlham College

Teaching. They have taught courses in: career education; comparative literature; creative writing; cultural studies; fellowships success; folklore; gender studies; literatures in English; queer studies; Scandinavian studies; and writing.

Courses Taught at Earlham

• ENG/SOAN 212 Introduction to Folklore (*coming fall 2023)
• ENG 382 Topics in Genre and Narrative: Alternative Realities
• EPIC 271 Fellowship Foundations
• EPIC 481 Internship

Ongoing Research Projects

• Decolonizing and queering approaches in global learning
• Queer/quare potential of ‘the monstrous Other’ | scifi, folklore, fantasy, future studies, and social justice
• Critically engaged pedagogies: culturally sustaining pedagogies, universal design, antiracism theory and practice
• Best practices in faculty-led and short-term, off-campus programs (study, internships, fieldwork, etc.)

Education

• B.A. English and Creative Writing, Hiram College (Ohio), 1995
• M.A. Gender Studies, and graduate teaching certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Oregon, 1999
• A1-level certificate in Icelandic Language and Culture, Háskola Islands (University of Iceland), 2003
• M.A. (2008) and Ph.D. (2010) Comparative Literature, University of Oregon

Identities. Roger identifies as queer, lives with a disability (not visible), and comes from a working-class background. They were also a first-generation college student. They are passionate about inclusiveness and are very happy to serve as a mentor or advocate for students from diverse backgrounds. They are gender nonbinary and use they/them/their pronouns.

Julie Whalen started her career by teaching English Language Arts at the high school level.  There, she had the opportunity to do a summer study abroad in Peru through a Fulbright Grant.  The experience was meaningful and sparked a love of travel and a passion to help others find similar experiences.  She began promoting study abroad at the high school level, working in exchanges with both Spain and Japan, as well as a domestic study in South Dakota.  She now helps Earlham students who are interested in studying abroad reach their goals.

Julie believes in the promotion of cultural competency and empathy and is passionate about making international study a reality for all students who seek to learn about the world through a new lens.

Melissa Cox is the Administrative Assistant in the Center for Global and Career Education. Melissa has been at Earlham for 16 years.  She has been in her current role, with the Center for Global and Career Education, for five of those years.  Previously, she work with the M.A.T. program for eleven years.  Melissa also teaches yoga in the Athletic and Wellness Center.

Simón Sedillo is a Professional Partner with the Earlham College’s Border Studies Program, based out of Tucson, Arizona. Sedillo is also a community rights defense organizer, filmmaker, educator, artist, and the author of “Weapons, Drugs, and Money: Crime, Corruption, and Community Based Liberation in the U.S./Mexico Neoliberal Military Political Economy.” For the last 15 years, Sedillo has been teaching geopolitics and political economy.

Sedillo has contributed to the production of a wide variety of documentary films and investigative articles, which focus primarily on the effects of the neoliberal military political economy on indigenous communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color in the US and Mexico. Sedillo’s work more importantly focuses on how social movements, particularly in Indigenous communities in Mexico, are organizing and resisting neoliberalism.