Public Interest

The world is increasingly interconnected. What happens on the other side of the globe impacts our economy, careers, and way of life here in Idaho, for better or worse. But it’s also important to understand that our faculty and students now have opportunities to make a positive difference in our communities in ways never before possible.

Our new Global Studies program is educating students on how to understand our new world and to achieve incredible things.

In this issue of Public Interest, we’ll introduce you to a remarkable Global Studies student and a respected professor. We’ll tell you about an innovative and exciting Global Studies course and share a noteworthy event that we recently hosted. We’ll also present a timely and relevant article by a School of Public Service faculty member that appeared in The Blue Review, our journal of popular scholarship.

The world is changing, but we are working hard to understand these changes and to impact our world for good, educating students to have successful and meaningful careers working in the Public Interest.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew Giacomazzi
Interim Dean, School of Public Service
Boise State University

Watch the Introductory Video on YouTube

What difference does an international border make?

Libby Lunstrum is interested in borders. Specifically, international borders, the militarization of them, and the green violence and wildlife crime that often crosses them.

Lunstrum’s interest in international borders goes back to research she has done for over a decade in Southern Africa on the subject of cross-border rhino poaching. While studying the issue “that transformed everything” in the conservation community, Lunstrum worked in the Republic of South Africa and Mozambique, where an international border goes through a protected wilderness area. The wildlife crime and border militarization found in this area illustrate the problems that Global Studies students will be tasked with trying to solve: issues of inequality, lack of economic opportunity and relationships between communities and their governments.

Read the full Faculty Spotlight on our website