The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez area is perhaps the most interesting and dynamic border in the United States. Usually the area has been described as a social laboratory, where it is possible to do research on any kind of topics, from health, poverty and education, to economic and political issues, among others.
In that sense, UTEP is in a privileged location and its students and faculty have been able to produce important research to help to understand the dynamics and development of the region.
But the violence in Juárez is already affecting the ways that the university conducts research in Mexico. It is not an exclusive situation of UTEP; many U.S. universities are also limiting their students and faculty for traveling to Mexico due to the violence and the risks associated to it.
According to an article published today by UTEP student newspaper The Prospector, some graduate students have had to alter their thesis to abide the new University of Texas Systems rule that requires universities authorities “to take certain precautionary measures with regard to university-sponsored international travel. These measures are necessary to ensure that the UT System minimizes risk and is in a position to assist faculty, staff or students on university-sponsored trips in the event of an emergency."
Many students and faculty have found a way to go around the rule and to continue their research on Mexico. If, for instance, their research has to do with health, they have found partners in Juárez to help them with the interviews and to collect data.
But as one student said to The Prospector, this situation creates a sort of disconnection between the researcher and the subject to be studied.
It is completely understandable that universities want to avoid the dangers of sending students and faculty to the other side of the border, but at the same time, it is problematic that borderland research is at risk in a moment in which the violence is having a profound impact in both sides of the border, affecting even the way that both cities look at each other.
Lamentably, the UT System new rule is one more of the multiple side effects of the drug war and probably it won't be the last one.
To read The Prospector complete article go to: http://www.utepprospector.com/borderland-research-at-risk-1.1765246
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