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Political Research Seminar (395-0-22)

Topic

The American Border

Instructors

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
Scott, #209

Meeting Info

Scott Hall 107 Burdick Room: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

In this course we will study American borders in all their complexity: past and present, fortified and absent, porous and securitized, local and global. We will read widely in politics, history, religious and cultural studies, anthropology, and border studies. We will watch documentary films, listen to music, and learn from engaging with guest speakers. Central themes will include the history of US borders with Mexico, borders and Indigenous communities, borders and protest movements, law and borders, sanctuary, sovereignty, legal exceptionalism, the history of passports, religion and borders, environmental politics of the borderlands, and the lived experiences of migrants during and after crossing US borders. These issues are considered from multiple perspectives including and going well beyond issues of surveillance and enforcement.

Registration Requirements

Juniors/Seniors only

Learning Objectives

Through taking this course, students will:

  • Summarize and evaluate arguments made by others;

  • Formulate persuasive and creative arguments, orally and in writing, based on careful analysis of evidence;

  • Cite sources appropriately;

  • Use Northwestern Library and other scholarly resources to locate, identify, cross-check, and critique important sources, including scholarly articles.

Teaching Method

Discussion seminar.

Evaluation Method

Final grades are based on:

  1. class attendance and participation (20%);

  2. midterm assignment (20%);

  3. reader’s response (20%); and

  4. final paper or project (40%).

No late work is accepted without a written medical excuse.

Class Materials (Required)

Francisco Cantú, The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border (New York: Riverhead Books, 2018).

Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions (Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2017).

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2025).

Todd Miller, Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World (New York: Verso, 2019).

Rachel St. John, Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012).

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression