Michael Dear’s Border Witness: Reimagining the US-Mexico Borderlands Through Film wins acclaim

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of City & Regional Planning Michael Dear’s latest book, Border Witness: Reimagining the US-Mexico Borderlands Through Film (University of California Press, 2023), has been named Best Book by the Association of Borderland Studies and awarded the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize from the American Association of Geographers.

In its citation, the AAG called Border Witness “a masterfully written book that uses film to narrate the human and landscape geographies of the US-Mexico border region. It convinces the reader to consider ‘border film’ a vibrant genre and reviews a century of film to illuminate the communities, spaces, and identities that emerge in a dynamic geographical zone. Both academics and non-academics will appreciate Dear’s thorough research, insights on timely issues, nice illustrations, and wonderful prose. This is a book that is only possible when decades of research and fieldwork slowly marinate into a rich, deep study.”