Beyond Borders Consortium

FIU and JGI were part of a six university project to enhance understanding and study among Canada, Mexico and the United States. Entitled “Beyond Borders: Integration, Migration and Security in North America,” this four year project, (September 2008 – August 2013), was primarily established to enable students to study at partner universities for a full semester. A total of seven FIU students traveled during years 2-4.

Funded by the Fund to Improve Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) of the U.S. Department of Education, Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), and the Dirección de Desarollo Universitario of Mexico’s Secretaría de Educación Pública, this project’s lead institutions were the University of Texas at El Paso, Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and Centro de Investigación y Docensia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City; partner institutions were FIU, University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Universidad Autónomo de Nuevo León (UANL) in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

The project also entailed collaborative curriculum development, with certificates or other concentrations of study about North American Studies and a common core course on North American relations. The final goal of the project was to develop and seek funding to implement a collaborative research project among the partner universities to develop deeper understanding and potential policy recommendations. This was realized through a conference in Los Angeles May 14-15, 2010 at which two FIU graduate students presented papers, and the February 24, 2012 colloquium "Access, Boundaries and Cooperation: The ABCs of North American Security hosted at FIU. Papers developed for the ABCs colloquium are available at the JGI Digital Commons.