In Context with School for Advanced Research

What If the Border Story Starts With Water?

What if the real story of the border isn’t about walls at all? In this episode, we explore how rivers, irrigation projects, and trade routes have bound together and divided the U.S., Mexico, and Canada over nearly two centuries. In this episode, Paul and C. J. discuss:  * Personal roots in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands and origins of the project * Transformation of the border through massive construction and engineering * Paradox of closed-border policing vs. open-border trade and transportation * Water infrastructure, irrigation, and the creation of migrant labor demand * Systemic flaws, compensatory infrastructure, and the disfiguring of the Rio Grande Key Takeaways:  * The U.S.–Mexico border is not a single, uniform place but a 2,000-mile span of diverse ecosystems, cultures, and landscapes that defies simple political narratives. * Over the last 175+ years, the border has been physically made visible and “legible” through mega-projects, dams, canals, roads, and fences, layered one atop another. * Water engineering and irrigation projects have not only transformed rivers but also generated powerful economic magnets for migrant labor, tightly linking hydrology to human movement. * Many contemporary crises at the border stem from earlier grand projects and policies; new “solutions” often serve as compensatory layers that attempt to fix problems those very systems created. * The most profound environmental damage along the border has been done to the river itself, especially the Rio Grande, whose flow, shape, and ecology have been radically altered, challenging us to rethink our relationship with the more-than-human world. “The border has always been open, and the border has always been closed. The only question is, to whom and to what and when?” - C. J. Alvarez Episode Resources: * Book: Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the U.S.–Mexico Divide - https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477319017/ [https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477319017/] About C. J. Alvarez: Dr. C. J. Alvarez is an environmental historian whose work explores deserts, the built environment, and the U.S.–Mexico border. He is the author of Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the U.S.-Mexico Divide (2019), a deeply researched study that connects border infrastructure, such as survey markers, fencing, and surveillance systems, to the history of river engineering and large-scale hydraulic projects. His current book project, The Arid Heart, traces the history of the Chihuahuan Desert from the end of the last Ice Age, drawing on Indigenous oral histories, archaeological evidence, and environmental data to craft a multi-millennial narrative and experiment with ecocentric approaches to history. His work has been supported by an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the School for Advanced Research, and he has served as a visiting fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Alvarez earned his doctorate in history from the University of Chicago after studying art history at Harvard and Stanford, and he continues to draw inspiration from his upbringing in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Connect with C. J. Alvarez:  Website: https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/mals/faculty/ca29356 [https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/mals/faculty/ca29356]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/c-j-alvarez-5935ba37/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/c-j-alvarez-5935ba37/]  Connect with Paul Ryer & School for Advanced Research: Website: https://sarweb.org/ [https://sarweb.org/]  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia [https://www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryer-4a4889156 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryer-4a4889156]    Show notes by Podcastologist: Francine Poblete Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. [https://t.sidekickopen77.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lM8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJN7t5XWPdSD1CW2zq9rs4Y8_jsTmtwR3JwfC-103?te=W3R5hFj4cm2zwW4mKLS-4fPf-FW3XWJt643Pr3GF4cQb1fmLXp1&si=8000000000242417&pi=a234d7d8-f11b-4fd4-feb6-16232278dc85]You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Believing In Bits

In this episode, Paul and Gabriella discuss:  * What Gabriella Coleman means by “sturdy knowledge” and why the concept matters in today’s epistemic crisis * How misinformation debates often rely on a “naive liberal epistemology” that oversimplifies how knowledge is produced * Why is scientific consensus difficult to achieve, even without political polarization * Why AI boosterism reflects the same epistemic blind spots as science absolutism Key Takeaways:  * Establishing reliable knowledge is never simple or automatic, even in the absence of political polarization. Scientific facts emerge through contested processes shaped by uncertainty, debate, and institutional structures. * Treating facts as obvious or self-evident often deepens mistrust rather than resolving disagreement. Absolutist claims leave little room for nuance, making public corrections feel like evidence of deception instead of scientific evolution. * Knowledge is always produced within social and political contexts, and pretending otherwise undermines credibility. Transparency about positionality and process strengthens trust more than claims of pure neutrality. * AI boosterism repeats the same epistemic mistakes as science absolutism by framing technology as a neutral source of truth. Without humility and accountability, AI risks amplifying, not solving, the current epistemic crisis. “And you know this notion of sturdy knowledge, as we've explored. And you put so well, is anti-arrogance, it's like pro-humility.” - Gabriella Coleman Episode Resources: * Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective” [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3178066] * Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social [https://academic.oup.com/book/52349] * Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/medical-history/article/bruno-latour-the-pasteurization-of-france-trans-alan-sheridan-and-john-law-cambridge-mass-and-london-harvard-university-press-1988-8vo-pp-273-2395-georges-canguilhem-ideology-and-rationality-in-the-history-of-the-life-sciences-trans-arthur-goldhammer-cambridge-mass-and-london-the-mit-press-1988-8vo-pp-xi-160-1795/53CDFB2DA97559BBE14382C0E0E5CC9B] * Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor [https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/literature-and-writing/illness-metaphor-susan-sontag] * Naomi Klein, Doppelgänger [https://naomiklein.org/doppelganger/] About Gabriella Coleman: Gabriella (Biella) Coleman is a full professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Her work focuses on the politics, cultures, and ethics of hacking, and she is widely regarded as one of the leading scholars examining hacker communities and digital power. She is the author of Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous, the latter named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2014 and recipient of the 2015 Diana Forsythe Prize from the American Anthropological Association. Coleman’s current research examines the relationship between hackers and the state, including a Ford Foundation–, NSF-, SSHRC-, and FRQ-funded project on the professionalization of hacking from the mid-1990s through the 2000s, co-authored with Matt Goerzen. She is also co-creator of Where Warlocks Stay Up Late, an interactive research website and map, and the founder and editor of Hack_Curio, a video portal on the cultures and politics of hacking. Beyond academia, Coleman has contributed to major outlets including The New York Times, Wired, Slate, MIT Technology Review, The Atlantic, and Huffington Post, and presented her research to audiences such as the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus, Brookings Institution, ACLU, and NASA. She delivered the 2022 Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures at the University of Rochester, previously held the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University, taught at NYU, and earned her PhD in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Chicago. Connect with Gabriella Coleman:  Website: https://gabriellacoleman.org/ [https://gabriellacoleman.org/]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriella-biella-coleman-285aa4161/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriella-biella-coleman-285aa4161/]  Connect with Paul Ryer & School for Advanced Research: Website: https://sarweb.org/ [https://sarweb.org/]  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia [https://www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryer-4a4889156 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryer-4a4889156]    Show notes by Podcastologist: Francine Poblete Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. [https://t.sidekickopen77.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lM8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJN7t5XWPdSD1CW2zq9rs4Y8_jsTmtwR3JwfC-103?te=W3R5hFj4cm2zwW4mKLS-4fPf-FW3XWJt643Pr3GF4cQb1fmLXp1&si=8000000000242417&pi=a234d7d8-f11b-4fd4-feb6-16232278dc85]You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Social Movements and Ethics in Philosophy

In this episode, Paul, Carl, and Heidi discuss: * What it feels like to live in Minneapolis amid intensified ICE and Border Patrol operations. * The role of legal observers and rapid response networks in documenting enforcement activity. * The power and limits of social media in organizing, surveillance, and public accountability. * How churches, small businesses, musicians, and neighborhood groups are reshaping civil society in real time. Key Takeaways:  * Minneapolis residents describe the current ICE presence as feeling like a “military occupation,” yet alongside fear and exhaustion, there is a profound sense of solidarity and shared purpose. * Legal observers play a critical role in documenting law enforcement actions, providing evidence for court cases, and countering official misinformation. * Social media has become both a democratizing force for transparency and a potential tool for surveillance and misinformation, highlighting the need for in-person organizing alongside digital tools. * Universities and institutional leadership may lag behind grassroots movements, even when faculty, students, and community members are deeply engaged. “Everybody just wants to figure out some way to help, and all you have to do is give them some opportunity to do that, and they will leap in happily, willingly.” - Carl Elliott “There is so much power in people standing up for their rights and supporting their neighbors.” - Heidi Reynolds-Stenson Episode Resources: * Cultures of Resistance: Collective Action and Rationality in the Anti-Terror Age by Heidi Reynolds-Stenson [https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/cultures-of-resistance/9781978823778] * The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No by Carl Elliott [https://www.amazon.com/Occasional-Human-Sacrifice-Medical-Experimentation/dp/1324065508] About Carl Elliott: Carl Elliott is a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, where he joined the Center for Bioethics in 1997. Originally from Clover, South Carolina, he trained in both medicine and philosophy at Davidson College, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of Glasgow. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, Elliott has also held fellowships at the Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, and the School for Advanced Research. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Mother Jones, and The American Scholar. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Ina, and their three children. About Heidi Reynolds-Stenson: Heidi Reynolds-Stenson earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 2018 and soon after joined the faculty at Colorado State University Pueblo. Her research focuses on social movements, protest, and policing, and she is the author of a book and several scholarly articles on these topics. Her current projects examine the impact of Black Lives Matter protests on police reform, historical shifts in protest policing, and legal consciousness surrounding family responsibilities discrimination. Connect with Carl Elliott:  Website: https://www.carl-elliott.com/ [https://www.carl-elliott.com/]  More Information: https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/ellio023 [https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/ellio023]  Connect with Heidi Reynolds-Stenson:  Website: https://www.dr-hrs.com/ [https://www.dr-hrs.com/]  More Information: https://www.csupueblo.edu/profile/heidi-reynolds-stenson/index.html [https://www.csupueblo.edu/profile/heidi-reynolds-stenson/index.html] This is a link to download a PDF that includes Rapid Response Phone Numbers for all 50 states if you ever need assistance: https://www.cliniclegal.org/file-download/download/public/80156 [https://www.cliniclegal.org/file-download/download/public/80156]  Connect with Paul Ryer & School for Advanced Research: Website: https://sarweb.org/ [https://sarweb.org/]  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia [https://www.youtube.com/@sarsantafemultimedia]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryer-4a4889156 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryer-4a4889156]    Show notes by Podcastologist: Francine Poblete Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. [https://t.sidekickopen77.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lM8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJN7t5XWPdSD1CW2zq9rs4Y8_jsTmtwR3JwfC-103?te=W3R5hFj4cm2zwW4mKLS-4fPf-FW3XWJt643Pr3GF4cQb1fmLXp1&si=8000000000242417&pi=a234d7d8-f11b-4fd4-feb6-16232278dc85]You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.