Learning on the Border: AMS330 Fieldwork and Student Perspectives on Transnational Space

Students from the American Studies course, AMS330H1S "Transnational America", participated in a field trip to San Diego during February 2025 reading week. They engaged in site visits, guest lectures, and experiential learning activities to study the transnational dimensions of space in the borderlands. As a class, they focused on themes of military, bordering, logistics of global supply chains, and the ways that everyday people navigate these forces. Students also developed their research projects, which they worked on during the trip.

Here are some of the StoryMaps they developed about transnational spaces and processes they explored.

The Blue Line: A history of the Transnational San Diego Metropolitan Transit System and it's Racial Hierarchies
by Noah Sokoloff 

Environmental Racism and Community Resistance in Barrio Logan
by Marin Dobson

Painting Resistance 
by Rooj Ali

Statues and Civic Identity in San Diego
by Kate Levey

A Seismic Swell: The Politics of California's Surf Culture 
by Jake Karpouzis