Navigating Borders During the Pandemic: A Collaborative Multi-Sited Approach

Abstract

In this contribution, we examine a virtual, cross-campus collaboration during the fall of 2020. Our goal was for students to develop deeper knowledge of the materiality of borders through course content as well as getting to know each other and their different contexts in iterative ways. We approached this goal by intentionally seeking to engage our students, who were facing virtual classes for the second or third time given the Covid-19 pandemic. We knew students struggled with online platforms in previous terms and aimed to provide a classroom experience that recognized the limits of screen-based interaction and the multitude of precarities accentuated by the pandemic. While attending our classes, students were also facing the interlocking effects of Covid-19 including illness and death in their families, effects on their employment and mobility, and associated mental health struggles. Thus, community building within and across these classes was key as we navigated teaching online. Finally, we address our social location regarding course content given our complicated histories of migration and identities as undocuscholars: growing up and attending higher education undocumented in the U.S. (though no longer undocumented).