Border researchers, 'Between the Lines' invite input

Thursday, 10 December 2009 02:06

What can students think up that government scientists and politicos can’t?

Some curious UA departments want to know the answer to that question too.

The “Between the Lines” contest offers students the chance to take a crack at offering up their own ideas of what methodologies and ethics are in tune with the current situation between the borders of the U.S. and Mexico.

The project is inter-disciplinary and international, according to Colin Deeds, program coordinator at the Center for Latin American Studies.

“We sent out memos all over the U.S., to the UA - political science, anthropology, anything involved with social sciences, the history and law departments and colleges,“ Deeds said. “Also, we hope Mexican counterparts are doing the same.”

The papers preface a conference to be held on April 23, 2010 where a panel of guest speakers including keynotes: Jorge Durand and author Kathleen Staudt will extol their expertise on the subject of border research ethics and methodologies.

“We did two workshops on the subject leading up to “Between the Lines”,” Deeds said. “Southwestern researchers came to speak with students about the effective methods of doing research near and over the border.”

Papers will tackle the issues on a range of topics: what makes a “vulnerable” source – a source likely to decline to give information or give sketchy information, how to ensure cooperative international data sharing and researcher responsibility. Ethics and methodology are the two major umbrella topics under which the papers’ subject matters are to fall.

The hope is that when the conference is held on April 23, the content of the submissions from students will be weighed and possibly bound in some form.

“We’re looking at getting a publication of some type,” Deeds said, “Maybe a scholarly article or book.”

The project is meant to bring together researchers from every field, Deed said. The memo also reached the Association of Borderland Scholars, the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Association of Geographers.

While the guest list appears to be largely pooled from the U.S., the intent is that the project will rake in eager Spanish-speaking and Mexican writers as well.

“Everything will be bilingual,” Deeds said, “The workshops, the submission and project notice online and the conference will be broadcast and read aloud in Spanish as well as English.”

Submissions for this paper should have a 150-word abstract describing the papers content as well as three key words to summarize the topic.

The Papers are due Jan. 15, 2010.

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