The University of Arizona Press
May 21, 2025
The Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) awarded James Gerber its Lifetime Achievement Award at their 2025 annual conference in Seattle. Gerber is author of Border Economies: Cities Bridging the U.S.-Mexico Divide; he is the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies and a professor of economics at San Diego State University. In announcing the award, ABS stated: “James is an extremely well-regarded member of the ABS community and is approachable and welcoming. He is a mentor and guide, whose wise counsel is often sought on ABS matters and border studies more generally. He is a distinguished and respected member of the global border studies community and a source of inspiration for younger generations of students and scholars interested in border studies.”
Congratulations, James!
About the book:
Enormous legal cross-border flows of people, goods, and finance are embedded in the region’s history and prompted by the need to respond to new opportunities and challenges that originate on the other side. In Border Economies James Gerber examines how the interactivity and sensitivity of communities to conditions across the border differentiates them from communities in the interiors of Mexico and the United States. Gerber explains what makes the region not only unique but uniquely interesting.
In Border Economies readers who want to understand the conditions that make the border controversial but also want to go beyond shallow political narratives will find an in-depth exploration of the economic forces shaping the region and an antidote to common prejudices and misunderstandings.
