Introductory description

The US-Mexican border is one of the most recognisable environments on earth. It's towering red rocks, rolling sand, and awkward cacti formed the context to countless westerns; over the past three decades, they have formed the background to explosive economic development, spiralling drug violence and repeated immigration crises.

This course examines the creation of the US-Mexican border, and its development over the past two centuries. First, the course seeks to introduce students to the idea of the borderlands as a distinct transnational region, where social and cultural mixing is, and has been, the norm. Second. it seeks to focus on certain, more divisive issues, which have shaped both Mexico and the United States. They include nation-formation, racism, speculative capitalism, smuggling, policing, and immigration. Third, it seeks to explain how the border has formed an important if shifting metaphor for both the US and Mexican experience.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1) An Introduction to the historiography of the borderlands: Turner, Bolten, Aron and Adelman, Grandin. How should we define the "borderlands"? What role have the borderlands played in US and Mexican historiography?

Week 2) Indians and Cowboys: The indigenous empires of the Wild West. With special focus on the Comanche and Apache empires.

Week 3) Railroad Capitalism. How did the railways shift demographic, economic and social relations in the US-Mexican borderlands?

Week 4) Extermination. The borderlands have always had a reputation for brutality and violence. Much of this reputation is unfounded. However, there is no doubt that during the second half of the nineteenth century US and Mexican authorities used increasingly violent means to suppress certain ethnic and political groups.

Week 5) Revolution. How central was the border for the Mexican Revolution? What effect did the Mexican Revolution have on the border?

Week 6) The Vice Capital of the World. How did U.S. prohibition affect political, social and economic relations in the borderlands? It built vice cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, but also generated a demographic and economic boom.

Week 7) Braceros and US-Mexican migration. During the mid-twentieth century the borderlands was also site of enormous flows of labor from south to north as well as burst of aggressive repatriation. How did these affect the borderlands? How did these affect US-Mexican relations?

Week 8) The new borderlands capitalism. From the 1960s onwards, both the US and Mexican authorities have seen the border as a vast untapped economic force. And, they have attempted to take advantage of transnational flows of labor and capital to create a new center for the North-American economy. Results have been rather unequally divided.

Week 9) Black market border. At the same time the border has also generated the flipside to international, free trade capitalism. The border has now become an enormously contentious site of both unregulated migration and drug trafficking.

Week 10) The border industrial complex. To counter this, bother US and Mexican authorities have increasingly militarised the border, using the perceived threats of migration and narcotics trafficking to fashion new police forces, and new repressive apparatuses.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Subject knowledge: Students should come away with a clear knowledge of US-Mexican borderlands historiography and history. They should also understand how these tie into national historiographies and histories.
• Key Skills: Students should come away with better written and oral communication skills.
• Cognitive Skills: Students should improve their critical analysis, and their ability to parse complex contemporary issues.
• Subject knowledge: Students should better understand the historical context of certain key contemporary issues, including drug trafficking, immigration, and transnational capitalism

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Interdisciplinary

The students will be asked to combine reading works of history with those of anthropology, political science, criminology and international relations.

International

The course examines the US-Mexican borderlands and looks at the creation of both nations.

Subject specific skills

Knowledge of the history and historiography of the borderlands
Understanding of certain key contemporary issues including migration, narcotics trafficking, crime and policing, and transnational capitalism

Transferable skills

Critical analytical skills
Essay writing
Interpersonal and communication skills