Projects & Initiatives

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.