North American Studies & Research Initiative (NASRI)
North American Studies & Research Initiative (NASRI)
SBS Mexico Initiatives
The North American Studies & Research Initiative (NASRI) is a multidisciplinary academic initiative housed within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona. NASRI is conceived as a collaborative network and platform for the advancement of scholarly research, critical inquiry, and institutional partnership centered on the diverse realities, histories, and futures of the countries of North America: Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
Anchored at a major public research university located in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, this initiative brings together a vibrant network of institutions, academic programs, scholars, and specialists committed to the study of North America through the lenses of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Its academic work is transnational in scope, and interdisciplinary in nature, promoting dialogue among researchers from diverse disciplines such as history, anthropology, political science, cultural studies, border studies, Indigenous studies, geography, sociology, and public policy.
Contact and Membership
Starting in the Fall of 2026, NASRI welcomes scholars, researchers, and academic institutions with a demonstrated interest in North American Studies. For more information on how to join or collaborate, please contact the Office of Mexico Initiatives at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona.
On the Edge Project: Public dimensions of shared heritage, knowledge, and history
In 2017 we received a Confluencenter grant and stablished an international faculty & research group in partnership with El Colegio de San Luis A.C. By exploring diverse expressions of shared heritages manifest in different boundaries–spatial, social, political, legal, cultural, linguistic, economic, artistic, geographic, and the like—we seek to identify new methodologies for examining the paired concepts of shared heritage and boundaries writ large. The goal is to explore a variety of approaches to the social, historical, and cultural ties that bind groups across ethnic, class, national, gender, and disciplinary lines, with a specific focus on the US and Mexico.
On the Edge is a space for interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration at the University of Arizona, which has been expanded into other Mexican institutions: The Center for Research on North America (CISAN) at UNAM, and The Colegio de San Luis COLSAN in San Luis Potosi City. The original core faculty, graduate students, and support staff has expanded from having eight (8) members from the UA to a current number of twenty five (25) members from both Mexico and the US. Current members are affiliated to four different institutions in both countries. In four semesters we have met virtually and personally once a month as an ongoing seminar. We have used funding to host scholars as a group, and we engaged them in individual short stays of some of our members abroad, seminars, workshops, or symposiums that consolidated the group as an international and interinstitutional extended network.
- Seminario Permanente in partnership with CISAN-UNAM
Also, check out our news page to learn more about our activities.