Congratulations to the 2025 Digital Borderlands in the Classroom cohort!
The University of Arizona Libraries is excited to welcome eight U of A faculty to participate in the 2025 Digital Borderlands in the Classroom Faculty Fellowship Program and Summer Institute.
This is the second cohort of the program, which is funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Over the course of a year beginning July 1, 2025, the cohort works with library faculty and staff to redesign or update a course syllabus using digital scholarship tools and archival collections that support undergraduate student research on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, integrating library services and culturally responsive pedagogy practices.
The program kicks off with the week-long Digital Borderlands in the Classroom Summer Institute in July.
Faculty will integrate borderlands archival collections, library services, and culturally responsive pedagogy into the curriculum to enrich the educational experiences of all students. The program helps faculty guide students in finding, evaluating, and communicating information about the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. This approach empowers undergraduates to engage critically with a range of perspectives and develop appreciation for their own knowledge of the region while becoming more sophisticated producers and consumers of information.
In addition to being awarded a $9,000 stipend to support their work, each Fellow receives ongoing consultation and support from library experts throughout the academic year following the Summer Institute.
Members of each cohort will deliver their revised course within 18 months following the institute.
2025 Fellows
Susan Briante, Professor
English, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
ENGL 221: Field Studies in Writing
Sarah Grace, Assistant Professor
Psychology, College of Science
PSY 458: Youth and Violence
Eithne Luibheid, Professor
Gender and Women’s Studies, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
GWS 325: Gender, Sexuality, and Borders
Tarnia Newton, Assistant Clinical Professor
Advanced Nursing Practice, College of Nursing
NURS 250: Health Equity: Connection, Community, & Healing in Urgent Times
Margaret Pitts, Associate Professor
Communications, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
COMM 696C: Intercultural Communication
David Antonio Reyes, Lecturer
English, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
ENGL 102: Writing in the Borderlands
Marcelo Rodriguez, Assistant Librarian; Foreign, Comparative and International Law Librarian
Law Library, James E. Rogers College of Law
LAW 495: Comparative Law and Research Methods
Karen Zimmermann, Professor; Associate Director, School of Art
School of Art, College of Fine Arts
ART 160d1: Design Culture and Language
The University of Arizona was designated an Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI) in 2018.
In recent years, the Libraries have led and collaborated on several projects that focus on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and support the university’s HSI commitments, including: the 2020 Mellon-funded Digital Borderlands initiative that supported faculty research projects through library services, the 2023 University of Arizona project, “Connect Arizona Now: Digital Inclusion for Underserved Students and Communities of Southern Arizona, and the 2024 launch of the Ford Foundation-funded Reclaiming the Border Narrative digital archive.
Digital Borderlands in the Classroom draws upon the valuable work of the university’s Curriculum Development Institute and key HSI initiatives that support advancement of innovative pedagogical approaches that benefit students across the full range of disciplines at the U of A.