Cross-Border Research Fellows
The Cross Border Research Fellowship is co-hosted by the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University and the Borders in Globalization SSHRC Research Program at the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. This joint appointment between two universities with established border studies programs offers a unique opportunity to conduct cross-border, policy-relevant research in the Cascadia border region.
Kimberly Collins - 2024
Dr. Kimberly Collins is the Executive Director of the William and Barbara Leonard Transportation Center (LTC) at California State University, San Bernardino. The LTC is a regional transportation center focused on innovation, social equity, and sustainability in transportation systems, policy analysis, and big data analytics. In addition to her role at the LTC, she is a Professor of Public Administration at CSUSB, primarily teaching public policy. Kimberly’s current research focuses on social equity, sustainability/resiliency, and democracy in the Inland Empire of Southern California and border regions. Kimberly is the incoming chair of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board (GNEB - a U.S. EPA Presidential and Congressional Advisory Commission on the U.S.-Mexico border). Additionally, she is the North American Regional Editor for the Journal of Borderlands Studies. From 1999 to 2009, Collins was the Founding Executive Director of the California Center for Border and Regional Economic Studies (CCBRES) and an Assistant Professor of Public Administration (2007-2009) at the Imperial Valley Campus of San Diego State University. Kimberly received her Ph.D. in 2006 from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, Baja California and a MA in Political Science with a focus on International Relations from San Diego State University.
Jamie Ferrill - 2024
Dr Jamie Ferrill is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of Financial Crime Studies at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University. She has nearly a decade of law enforcement experience, having worked for the Canada Border Services Agency prior to commencing an academic career. Jamie holds a PhD from Loughborough University (UK), a Master’s in Homeland Security Leadership from the University of Connecticut (US), and a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from Mount Royal University (Canada). She is an Associate Fellow of the Academy of International Affairs NRW (Germany), Research Fellow with the Financial Integrity Hub at Macquarie University (Australia), and a Fellow of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s University (Canada). Jamie researches cross-border issues, addressing various aspects of national and economic security. Her current focus is on border governance, transnational cooperation and collaboration, and organizational processes.
2023
“Education Mobility & Indigenous Sovereignty”
Michael O’Shea is an interdisciplinary scholar with academic, professional, and personal experiences on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Mr. O’Shea is a PhD Candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. His research explores how Canadian universities can act on their historic Treaty obligations, specifically the Jay Treaty of 1794, to better support Indigenous students across the U.S.-Canada border. A growing number of Canadian universities have announced policies that extend domestic tuition rates to Indigenous students who reside south of the border in what is now known as the United States, rather than charging them international student fees. Through these cross-border tuition policies, these universities recognize that Indigenous homelands extend across the U.S.-Canada border and seek to fulfill their responsibilities under specific treaties and legal documents. Using a case study design, Mr. O’Shea’s research explores the introduction of these cross-border tuition policies at Vancouver Island University and the University of Saskatchewan.
2022
“Cross-Border Virtual Integration in Cascadia”
Dr. Andrzej Jakubowski is an assistant professor at the Institute of Social and Economic Geography at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. He researches economic, social and institutional distances in European borderlands (both internal and external EU borders), processes of cross-border convergence/divergence and the development of cross-border functional areas. He teaches border studies, regional development, place-based policies and regional planning. He has worked with Statistics Poland and as a senior specialist at the Lublin Regional Research Centre in the Statistical Office in Lublin. He is involved in the preparation of evidence-based policies working as an expert in the field of cross-border cooperation in a number of bodies (Committee for Spatial Management and Regional Planning of Polish Academy of Sciences; Analytical Group for Multidisciplinary Territorial Analyses; Taskforce on Information Dissemination and Cross-border Database). Dr. Jakubowski holds a PhD degree in political science and a Master’s degree in international relations (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University).
2020
“Knowledge Borders and the Cascadia Innovation Corridor: The Emergence of a Cross Border High Tech Cluster in the Canada-U.S. Border Region and the possible Impact of COVID – 19 on its Development”
Dr. Richardson is a Professor in Geography and Urban and Regional Planning at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Her work focuses on transnational migrations of highly-skilled immigrants between the Americas and Asia-Pacific, and how international borders may facilitate or impede these flows. Dr. Richardson recently published the book, Knowledge Borders: Temporary Labor Mobility and the Canada-US Border Region, which was nominated for the prestigious William Alonso Memorial Prize. This book examines the movement of high technology and biotechnology professionals across the Canada-U.S. border under Chapter 16 of NAFTA (now USMCA) in a post 9/11 environment within the binational region of Cascadia. Dr. Richardson received her Ph.D. in geography from the University of British Columbia, and did a post-doc at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. In addition to teaching and research, she is currently working on her second book.
2019
“Practices and Representations of the Border in Border Communities in the Cascadia Region”
Pierre-Alexandre Beylier is a Senior Lecturer in North American Studies at Université Grenoble-Alpes (France) where he teaches undergraduate courses in American history, in Canadian Studies and graduate courses in geopolitics on borders and global issues. His Cross Border Research Fellowship focused on studying the representations that border communities have of the Canada/US border and the way these representations influence their interactions with it in the Cascadia region. The goal was to help determine the possible existence of a cross-border identity as well as the possible impact security measures have on their interactions. This project specifically focused on the tourism sector and on cross-border travel in order to explore the strategy put in place by stakeholders from the tourism sector – how they market the region, the role played by the border in their marketing strategy and the presence or absence of cross-border relations between the different stakeholders.
2018
“Networks, Border Effects, and the Identity of the Cascadia Border Region”
Francesco Cappellano completed his PhD at Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria (Italy) after spending a visiting period at Northeastern University in Boston. As a visiting scholar at San Diego State University, he has been investigating cross-border economic integration at the US/Mexican border within his visiting period. As a Marie Curie fellow, he took part in a Horizon 2020 research project focused on innovation policy, spatial planning, and economic development. His Cross Border Research Fellowship project disentangles the main drivers and hindrances affecting cross-border innovation linkages in the Cascadia Border Region to develop policy guidance for utilizing the regional identity of Cascadia toward a platform for a place-based, cross-border innovation economy.
“Transboundary Civic Environmentalism in the Salish Sea-Cascadia Border Region”
For the last fifteen years, Margit Säre has been involved in Estonian environmental NGOs. She works on transboundary water management and cross-border environmental networks in the Estonian-Russian border area and in various Eastern European countries. Her Cross-Border Research Fellowship Project will analyze best practices on participatory efforts in transboundary environmentalism, public environmental education, collaborative planning methods, and existing cross-border methods and mechanisms for environmental campaigns.
2014 and Prior
“The Regulation of Mobility and Security in the Context of Globalization: A Comparative Analysis of Canada-US and US-Mexico Borderlands”
Dr. Dupeyron is an Associate Professor at the University of Regina. He is the recipient of the Fulbright Canada-CN Scholar Award and resided at Western while completing his Fulbright research project, “The Regulation of Mobility and Security in the Context of Globalization: A Comparative Analysis of Canada-US and US-Mexico Borderlands.”
“Advancing US-Canada Border Transportation Planning and Programming”
Hugh Conroy is Planning Director at the Whatcom Council of Governments and facilitator of the binational IMTC forum.
Dr. Stock is an attorney at Cascadia Cross Border Law Group LLC. She is also a 2013 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, as well as the 2013 Immigration Law Professor of the Year. At the BPRI she pursued research pertaining to Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETS).
“‘Breaking Points,’ but No ‘Broken’ Border: Stakeholders Evaluate Border Issues in the Pacific Northwest Region”
Dr. Konrad is an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University, as well as past President of the Association of Borderlands Studies.
“Crossing Bridges: Observations and Strategies by Cross-Border Business Communities in an Evolving Regulatory Environment.”
Dr. Vance-Sherman is a Regional Labor Economist for the Washington State Employment Security Department.
“Governing through Risk at the Canada/US Border: Liberty, Security, Technology”
Dr. Muller is an Associate Professor at the Centre for American Studies at the University of Western Ontario. As fellow at the BPRI, he completed research on risk management, biometrics, and border security in the Vancouver-Seattle corridor.