Associate Professor Kraig Beyerlein, Department of Sociology, Bio
Sophia Henn, Senior (Economics, Music, Peace Studies)
Angelica Ruiz, Junior (Sociology, Latino Studies, Anthropology)
Julia Mackey, Junior (Economics, Global Affairs)
Moderated by Fighting Irish Scholar, Jennifer Moreno Mendoza
This is a student-moderated panel conversation that asks panelists to reflect upon the impact of their experiences at the border and their perspectives on social justice. In his Border Immersion Seminar, Professor Beyerlein’s students engage in reflective classroom exercises that culminate in a week-long immersion trip to the Arizona borderlands. This experiential learning considers why migrants leave their home countries, the struggles they face when attempting to cross the border, how U.S.-citizen groups respond to unauthorized border crossings, and the effectiveness and ethics—particularly in reference to Catholic Social Teaching—of current immigration policy.