For centuries, present-day Arizona’s desert borderlands have been corridors connecting northern and southern peoples. These passages themselves have undergone transformations – cycles that included times of lesser and greater violence. In this presentation, Dr. John F. Chamblee, a long-time Humane Borders volunteer and head of their mapping project, will discuss a most recent borderlands transformation by providing a historical view of the migrant death mapping project’s data. By looking at changes in death rates and locations, he will explore connections between globalization, border policy, drug trafficking and increasing mortality rates over the last decade within Arizona’s undocumented migrant travel corridors.
 

About Dr. Chamblee:

Dr. Chamblee is an environmental informatics specialist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Since 2009, he has been the Information Manager for the Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, a thirty-year, National Science Foundation funded, place-based study of coupled human and natural systems in southern Appalachia. John has an A.B. degree in Political Science and Anthropology from the University of Georgia and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology from the University of Arizona. His academic specializations are computer-enabled regional science and the relationships between geophysical landscape structures and human social boundaries. He has authored or co-authored scholarly articles in Bioscience, Early Georgia, The Journal of Field Archaeology, Land Economics, and Regional Science and Urban Economics.
 

Dr. Chamblee has been involved in the use databases and computerized mapping to enable research and project management goals since he began working for the Georgia Archaeological Site File Office in 1994. While still a graduate student, he received a Presidential Recognition Award for Distinguished Service from the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) for his work developing a database for managing the intellectual program of the SAA Annual Meetings. He currently serves on the Science Advisory Committee for the Coweeta LTER and as Co-Chair of the Information Management Committee for the U.S. LTER Network.
 

John became involved with Humane Borders in 2003 when his wife, Ruby, then a volunteer, recognized that the organization needed a geographic information system (a type of electronic mapping software) database to manage their migrant death maps and encouraged him to develop one for the organization. He has managed the migrant death mapping program ever since.
 

The results of these efforts have been more accurate maps of deaths, a model of the potential benefits of additional cell phone towers in the western Sonoran Desert, and warning posters that inform potential migrants of the dangers associated with undocumented border crossings. These maps and posters have raised awareness about risks to migrants through their distribution in Latin America and by being featured in many news outlets [ Los Angeles TimesArticle ].

About Humane Borders:
“Humane Borders, motivated by faith, offers humanitarian assistance to those in need through the deployment of emergency water stations on routes known to be used by migrants coming north through our desert. Our sole mission is to take death out of the immigration equation. Our water tanks are on a combination of private and public lands. In all cases we have permission to locate our water stations on these lands in writing from the landowners.”
 

[ Website: http://humaneborders.org ]
 

About Border Action Network:
“Border Action Network is a human rights organization in border and immigrant communities. Our mission is to promote safety, equality, dignity, understanding and justice within the human environment and across cultures regardless of race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or country of origin.”
 

Vision: “A humane and civil society that values healthy, just and vibrant border and immigrant communities.”
 

[ Website: http://borderaction.org ]
 

Humane Borders and Border Action Network are co-presenting this event to  provide ongoing education and information to the community. There will be a Q and A following Dr. Chamblee’s presentation. The event is open to the public, and there is no charge to attend.