Faculty & Staff
On-Site Faculty and Staff | Faculty Advisory Committee
Resident Director & On-Site Staff
Riley Merline - Resident Director
Riley Merline is the Resident Director of the Border Studies Program.
Riley joined the program in 2008 and served for a semester as the Associate Director before taking his post as the RD. Riley holds a Masters in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona where he focused on the history of U.S. interventions, Latin American revolutions, development, and international political economy. As a graduate student Riley also conducted research on the history of U.S.-Mexico border fence construction and immigration policy. Originally from Wisconsin, he holds a B.A. in Spanish from Northern Michigan University and has lived in Tucson, Arizona since 2005.
Before joining the Border Studies Program Riley worked on the Witness for Peace International Team in Colombia leading educational delegations and investigating the effects of Plan Colombia’s military aid and anti-narcotics programs on human rights and development efforts. After moving to Tucson, he worked for BorderLinks leading experiential education seminars along the U.S.-Mexico border with a focus on migration and immigration policy, free trade, international debt, cross border economies, labor issues, and human rights. Over the years Riley has also made work and study visits to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Chile.
Riley's current interests center on the ethical implications of restricting the movement of people across international boundaries, the ways in which food production and economic systems contribute to the concentration of wealth and poverty in distinct geographic locations, and how an international community can build alternative models to create greater equity and eliminate ecologically destructive practices. He looks forward to engaged discussion of these issues, among many others, with future Border Studies participants.
Whenever possible, Riley escapes the city to explore the natural beauty of the Sonoran Desert and sky island mountain ranges surrounding Tucson. He enjoys rock climbing and gardening, plays ultimate Frisbee, enjoys a variety of films and books, and is committed to building more just and equitable societies across all borders and among all nationalities.
Katie Sharar - Assistant Director
Katie moved to Tucson in 2008 to attend a Master’s program in Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. Her thesis research focused on the impact of the Postville, Iowa, immigration raid and mass deportation on Guatemalan sending communities. She conducted additional research on Operation Streamline, a practice of the mass criminalization and deportation of immigrants in the Tucson area. In addition to her research on deportation-related issues, Katie is interested in alternatives to migration through the creation of just and dignified alternatives in sending countries; paths to reconciliation and healing in post-conflict societies; and defining what it means to do solidarity work.
Katie is originally from northern California, and completed her undergraduate work at Macalester College, where she received a BA in International Studies and Spanish in 2004. She also participated in the 2003 Border Studies Program, then located in El Paso/Ciudad Juarez, and has not really managed to leave the borderlands alone since. She worked to provide shelter and hospitality to unauthorized immigrants in El Paso; co-founded a house for women and children recently released from immigration detention facilities outside of Austin, TX; and served as a human rights observer for genocide cases in rural Guatemala.
In her next life, Katie aspires to be a cowgirl. In this one, she very much enjoys life in the Sonoran desert, where you can find her spending time at public libraries; wearing out her shoes exploring the various nooks and crannies of Tucson and the surrounding areas; searching for the best burrito in southern Arizona; cultivating a garden; and scheming ways to live as locally, meaningfully, and sustainably as possible.
She looks forward to learning and teaching with new generations of Border Studies students, and especially to the questions they raise, the dreams they dream, and the change they create.
Jeff McWhorter - Program Assistant
Jeff McWhorter is the Program Assistant with the Border Studies Program. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Jeff is a graduate of DePauw University in Indiana where he studied Creative Writing, History, and Spanish. During his time at DePauw Jeff spent a semester studying culture and development in Ecuador and also completed grant research concerning the political, social, and environmental effects of the mining industry on rural communities in Latin America.
Since his undergraduate studies Jeff has traveled, worked, and studied throughout the Americas having spent time in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and the U.S. Jeff’s experience has seen him managing a cloud forest nature reserve, leading educational excursions in South America, writing for and delivering a bilingual community newspaper, teaching English, conducting research on international education, delivering flowers, and doing door-to-door survey interviews and fundraising. Jeff also spent time as a human rights observer through the Intag Solidarity Network in Junin, Ecuador which continues to be the epicenter of a 15-year-long struggle against large-scale copper mining. Most recently he lived in Mexico City where he worked teaching English and volunteering his time with a variety of civil society organizations.
Jeff is currently a candidate for a Master’s degree in Social Justice in Intercultural Relations from the School for International Training Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, VT. While at SIT he explored social justice and the pursuit of social change towards that end with a focus on education, human rights, and organizing. His research interests lie at the intersection of international education, solidarity, radical pedagogy, and their contribution to social change. While in Vermont Jeff also played on the wildly successful SIT Chipmunk soccer team and delved into world systems theory.
Jeff is excited to experience the reality of living in the desert and on the U.S./Mexico border. He would like to live in a more just world and hopes that his work with the Border Studies Program will help him engage in a form of praxis which moves us in that direction. In his spare time he enjoys biking, reading, and napping.
