Advanced Topics in Macro Social Work

This course which will be partially funded by the School of Social Work.will be a trip to Tucson AZ leaving on 3/1 and returning on 3/7 by instructor consent only.

This mini course examines the use of advocacy, allyship, and intervention in contested border areas. The United States maintains a significant law enforcement and military presence on the southern border with Mexico, challenging every basic assumption that social workers make about community support. Students will travel to the southern border to observe the effects of this effort and to engage with activists about methods of social change. We will observe and learn about border patrol activities at and inside the border, attend a court session of Operation Streamline, and examine state and local law enforcement ideology and policy to aide immigration enforcement efforts. We will also speak with activists groups that are engaged in both support for targeted communities and advocating for social and policy change (like Derechos Humanos, No More Deaths, Tucson Samaritans, the Southside Presbyterian Church) about the difficulties of advocacy in a war like environment. By the end of the mini-course, students will be able to describe the ways that contested borders change both the opportunities and constraints of social workers in the field.

This mini-course requires a week-long trip to the border area around Tucson.