The visiting faculty member is responsible directly to the BSW Mexico Consortium during their term, acting through its administrative agent, the Center for Global Education and Experience (CGEE) at Augsburg University. The visiting faculty member is selected for a one-year term (the spring semester spent in Mexico). The visiting faculty member is selected by a search committee made up of members of the BSW Mexico Program Managing Committee.

The visiting faculty position is full-time during the spring semester of the year of the appointment, permitting only limited time for research and other personal projects. We are looking now for spring 2027, as well as 2028 and a back-up for 2026 (applicants will indicate their semester(s) of interest on the application form). 

• (review of applications will begin after that date).

For questions about this position or the program, please contact the Center for Global Education and Experience at globaled@augsburg.edu.

The post Now Seeking: Visiting Faculty for BSW Program in Mexico appeared first on Center for Global Education and Experience.

It is hard to believe that we have been in the beautiful country of Mexico for a little over a week now. It feels much longer and I owe it to the new experiences that have been brought to us. One of the biggest highlights for me has been getting to know other students from across the US at Casa Augsburg. Along with the staff and our IRA, Diana, have played a huge role in making sure that we were all comfortable in our transition to living in Mexico for the semester. They have all been so kind and welcoming. As we’ve settled in, we have had the chance to explore our neighborhood and surrounding towns. One thing that I think we all can agree on is how the food is a big part of understanding the culture. Trying different traditional foods, apart from my mothers cooking, has been an experience that I have enjoyed.

Alongside adapting to living in a tropical climate, we have had the time to explore Cuernavaca, Morelos and Mexico City. While visiting different towns and places, my favorite has been our trip to Amatlan. We stayed for 4 days with host families, immersing ourselves in their local culture. Living in someone else’s home, helping prepare meals, and experiencing a part of their daily routine has helped us become more aware of the place in which we stood. Additionally, we have started our classes and have the privilege to hear and speak to guest speakers. Everyone is taking Spanish and a majority of us are taking social work classes. As a group, we have been learning about social work in a latin social context.

Beyond our classes, we had the opportunity to meet with IHouse students; who are Mexican students who are studying English. It created a good space for our language exchange. It has been fun getting to know them a little bit and learning from each other. One of our highlights has been going to a waterpark for a day. Every day has been so much fun and I am excited to see how our next couple of months are going to be.

The post Social Work: One Month In! appeared first on Center for Global Education and Experience.

On Friday, April 21 we [CGEE Mexico] celebrated 20 years of an academic relationship between Augsburg/CGEE and UNAM/ ENTS (Escuela Nacional de Trabajo Social). UNAM has been in the list of Top 100 universities in the world for many years and their National School of Social Work among the best in Latin America. As a commitment to our further collaboration, we also signed another agreement for 4 additional years. This agreement was signed on behalf of CGEE Augsburg by our Mexico Site Director Dr. Ann Lutterman-Aguilar and on behalf of the UNAM by their National School of Social Work Director Carmen Casas Ratia.

At least 150 of our U.S. students have benefited from these exchanges as well as at least 150 Mexican students. Although its main purpose is academic, our students have found much joy and meaning in both the intellectual and social exchanges with peers and future Social Work colleagues. So many people have made this possible in both institutions over these two decades and we are grateful to all of them. We hope we can expand to more activities in the future like attending conferences, sharing research, and other kinds of collaboration.

Social Work students can complete the semester program with us, “” in the spring semester and enjoy this exchange first-hand!

Augsburg CGEE’s Cuernavaca location is the longest continually-running program site and we are very proud of our 45 year history!

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On Being Asian-American in Mexico

Mina Himlie, Augsburg class of ‘23

I am used to being the only Asian person in the room. I grew up in a small town that is 99 percent white, including my parents. I don’t have many Asian friends, and even in the Twin Cities I haven’t made any Chinese American friends. Before the start of my study abroad semester, I didn’t give much thought to how being Asian would affect me while I was in Mexico because I didn’t think being surrounded by a different race would be any different from my everyday experiences. Through the Global Twin Cities Scholars program I learned about Mexican culture and realities in terms of immigration. Between the cultural preparation and the completion of my intermediate level Spanish classes, I felt as prepared as I’d ever be to spend a semester abroad in Mexico. Even so, I was not prepared for the different way that Mexican culture constructs race and racism.

In my time in Cuernavaca, I have not seen many people visibly of Asian descent. I have, however, been asked many times by strangers where I came from. On its own, this is usually an innocuous question. People can usually tell that my friends and I are tourists, whether that’s from our English, our accents, our clothes, or something else, and they like to make small talk. However, it starts to come across as racist when they don’t accept “the United States” as an answer to their question.

One day I was out with my sister (also Asian) and her boyfriend (white). They were looking at some notebooks, and I was making small talk with the vendor. He asked where we were from, and I replied that we were from the U.S. He shook his head and pointed at my sister’s boyfriend. “He’s from the United States,” he said in Spanish, “but where are you two from?” This was the most direct anyone has ever been with me about my ethnicity. It also reveals something that we have talked a bit about in classes and discussions with Mexican students from International House: the popular idea in Mexico that only white people are from the U.S.

I could go on with countless other incidents like this one when people have asked, “Where are you from?” and gotten an unsatisfactory answer, so they proceed to ask, “Where are your parents from?” and “Where were you born?” until I answer with an Asian country, but I won’t. It is clear to me that when they ask, “Where are you from?” what they really want to know is my ethnicity. If it was just once or twice, it wouldn’t bother me. But it happens a lot here, possibly due to the social construction of race and racism.

One of the first guest speakers my group received was Dr. Raziel Valiño. She spoke on the topic of the social construction of race and class in Mexico. Dr. Valiño’s lecture introduced us to a phrase that I’ve heard too many times to be comfortable in the discussion of race: “Racism doesn’t exist in Mexico.” She, I , and the rest of my classmates disagree with this sentiment. She explained that because there was a lot of mixing between races in Mexico, the way Mexican culture constructs race is different, and almost everyone is considered “mestizo” or mixed race. So though it might not appear in the segregated way that it exists in the U.S., racism still shows up through colorism and classism.

Because of this mestizo reality in Mexico, it is not generally considered racist to comment on someone’s physical, ethnic appearance the way it is in the United States. Despite knowing this, the number of times it has happened makes me feel frustrated and exasperated. Like a microaggression, intentional or not, it builds up. 

In situations of intercultural communication like this, I feel that the CGEE program does a good job of emphasizing empathy and seeing things from the other culture’s perspective. What I had to remind myself of is that my perspective matters too, and both things can be true. Those strangers might not be intentionally saying racist things, and they still bother me because I interpreted them as microaggressions. They are allowed to bother me, but I’m not allowed to go off on someone for saying something. Being in Mexico, or any new cultural environment, requires self-reflection, not just cultural understanding.

Los Feminicidios

By Mina Himlie

In 2019 there were

10 cada día.

Yo no pude encontrar

More recent numbers,

Pero, does that matter?

No matter what

Hay demasiado.

Son un gran problema aquí en México

But they happen in the U.S. too.

We just don’t have the language for them

Escrito en nuestras leyes.

The United States

Ha declarado una guerra contra las mujeres

With the draft to repeal Roe v. Wade.

But that’s just the most obvious declaration of war.

What about las mujeres indígenas

Who are 10 times more likely to be disappeared

Or murdered.

“Missing” and murdered indigenous women are not missing.

They are disappeared.

What about las situaciones de violencia doméstica?

Las violaciones?

El abuso?

El miedo que sentimos when we walk alone?

Las cosas que hacemos para protegernos 

Without a second thought:

Keys between our fingers

Llamadas con amigos, reales y falsas

Theorizing escape routes

Mirando la mapa 

To be sure the Uber driver isn’t kidnapping you.

All of these things are part of

La guerra contra las mujeres

In both the United States y México.

Pero en los Estados Unidos and Mexico

We are fighting back.

We take to the streets.

We make our voices heard.

And we demand the right to live.

El futuro es feminino

So fuck the patriarchy,

And do it like a girl.

The post On Being Asian-American in Mexico & Student Poetry appeared first on Center for Global Education and Experience.

Welcome Sophie!

The post Meet Our New International Resident Assistant Sophie appeared first on Center for Global Education and Experience.

As many of you know, Augsburg has had presence in Cuernavaca, Mexico for over 35 years. Many Augsburg students along with other college students, non-profit organizations, businesses and others, have participated in our life changing programs year after year. Each experience had by our participants includes short stays with host families in the region. These families have expressed generosity, love, and support in hosting students throughout the years.

Many of our host families in the rural parts of Morelos were hit hard by the September 19th earthquake. These families and communities have lost homes in the devastation and are working to rebuild their lives.

Please consider donating to Ann’s campaign to help raise money for these families and communities in need. Even a simple $10 donation or a “share” on a facebook page can go a long way to helping those communities in need that have been so kind and generous with our students over the years.

(*Note: all host families, staff, and current students are safe, none were physically harmed during the earthquake. Our study center in Cuernavaca was not damaged. You can follow our blog and/or social media pages for updates.)

The post CGEE Donations for Mexican Host Families appeared first on Center for Global Education and Experience.

Despite the terrible tragedies caused by the recent earthquakes in Mexico, people are recovering amazingly quickly and demonstrating the incredible warmth and generosity of the Mexican spirit. Small mom and pop businesses have been giving out food and supplies to survivors of the earthquake, as have hardware stores and other businesses.  Almost everywhere you go, you see people who have set up relief collection centers in their homes, and people going to drop off donations. Many schools are serving as shelters for people whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the earthquake, and our state university is helping to coordinate relief efforts throughout the state. The government has opened up toll roads and made them free so that people can travel more easily and inexpensively during this time.  Even a lot of banks have stopped charging a fee to withdraw money regardless of whether it is your bank. These are just a few of the endless examples of the overwhelming love and solidarity being shared by ordinary citizens and all kinds of institutions.

The international response to the earthquake has also been tremendous.  On Friday, I witnessed the arrival of 15 Canadian women rescue workers with their rescue dogs. They received a huge round of applause everywhere they went in the earthquake because people could identify them as a result of the vests that both the women and dogs were wearing.  And the Canadians aren’t alone.  People from the United States and Cuba and all over the world have been helping out in person and through donations.  As a result, students and customized program participants have an incredible opportunity to learn from a wide range of people about what schools, social workers, activists, ordinary citizens, governments, and businesses do to respond to emergency situations.

Our current semester students were with their host families during the last (and worst) earthquake here last Tues., September 19, and they and their Mexican families were all fine.  In addition, the staff in our study center are all fine, and no one lost a home or has had to evacuate, although a few staff members have some damage to their homes. We are among the lucky ones, as are all of our current host families and all of the host families in the neighborhood of Plan de Ayala.

While lives and homes were lost in Cuernavaca, most of the largest tragedies took place in the southeastern part of the state of Morelos, closest to the epicenter of the quake.  Towns such as Jojutla and Axopian and Tenancingo were devastated.   Ixtlilco el Grande, where many CGEE students (especially in the Social Work program) have participated in rural homestays lost at least 15 homes, some of which belong to former host families. Those who haven’t been to Ixtlilco but have studied in Mexico may have learned about the circulatory migration between that town and Minneapolis from Augsburg adjunct professor Raziel Valino, who is completing her doctoral dissertation on that topic. She reports that the host families are physically fine and recovering from the trauma.  Even as they work to rebuild their own homes, they are helping out the other towns in their region that have suffered greater loss. Again, the show of solidarity is very inspiring.

Amatlan de Quetzalcoatl, where numerous CGEE groups have had homestays, also suffered from the earthquake.  Like Ixtlilco, Amatlan did not suffer the loss of lives, but numerous homes were destroyed, including that of elderly farmer Dona Irene Ramirez, who has often given talks about her heirloom corn and her views of GMO corn.

If you have already donated to earthquake relief in Mexico, thank you.  If you haven’t and would like to, there are many great organizations that could use your help.  The following link provides a few great suggestions for how to help:  .

CGEE-Mexico is currently trying to compile a list of host families who lost homes in Amatlan and Ixtlilco that we can share so that you can know how your former host families are if you have not already been in touch with them. We are also hoping to set up a mechanism to channel funds directly to the CGEE host families in Amatlan and Ixtlilco who lost their homes. Therefore, please stay tuned for updates.

Thank you,

Ann Lutterman-Aguilar

CGEE-Mexico Site Director

UPDATE: To donate to our campaign for host families, please visit the go fund me page at: .

The post Generosity, Love, and Support After Earthquake appeared first on Center for Global Education and Experience.

Ixtlilco El Grande is a town located on the border of the state of Morelos and Puebla. It is located in the municipality of Tepalcingo. Our students had the opportunity to visit and stay at Ixtlilco overnight from February 24-26. As part of the programming, our students stayed with welcoming host families and visited fish farm, greenhouses and crop fields, talked to the town authorities, ate amazing Chinese food at El Chino Mexicano, and visited Los Ocotates, a historical site of a major battle during the Mexican Revolution.

As Raziel Valiño, our Adjunct Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies explained, there is an existing transnational migratory circuit between Ixtlilco El Grande and Minnesota. Many people from Ixtlilco El Grande immigrate to the Twin Cities and the surrounding counties. Over the years, they have created a linked community that strongly preserves ties to and the traditions of Ixtlilco El Grande. Fun Fact: Tamales La Loma inside the El Mercado Central in Minneapolis is owned by people of this great town of Ixtlilco El Grande.

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Every week we are going to be sharing some of our favorite places in Cuernavaca with you! We will be giving you the inside look on all the fun places to go in Cuernavaca, Mexico while you study abroad! Today’s Cuernavaca Corner was written by Brittney Westgard, alumni of our Social Work program and current volunteer in Mexico. Brittney is an Augsburg College Alumni.

This week we stopped by some of our favorite places to get cool treats. We started off with Tepoznieves, an ice cream shop that started off in the local town of Tepoztlan, Morelos and has now spread into different cities throughout Mexico.  The best thing about Tepoznieves is their vast selection of both diary based and non-dairy based ice creams (that’s right I said non-Dairy!!!). There lively décor makes it an experience unlike any other!  Our favorite flavors are rose petal, fig mezcal, blackberry cheesecake, or Beso de Angel (Which means “Angel Kiss”, with a name like that you know it must be heavenly).

When you want something on the go or at a very reasonable price, you can always pick up a cool treat from the many venders selling Raspados (shaved ice done right), Bolis (a frozen juice or dairy based treat…in a bag) or Paletas (popsicles).

If you’re looking for gourmet artisanal ice cream, Helados Cuernavaca is the place to go! They have all your traditional flavors like chocolate, coffee, cookies and cream as well as traditional Mexican flavors like corn, jicama or mandarin!

For those of you who cannot survive without an ice cold coffee or Frappe, don’t worry….be happy! We have a brand new Starbucks right downtown with a rooftop patio that has a great view of all the main downtown attractions!

The post Cuernavaca Corner: Cool Treats edition appeared first on Center for Global Education and Experience.

Here are my top seven reasons why all Social Work students should study abroad with CGEE Mexico:

(1) To expand your network of social workers.

Our program accepts students from all over the country. This will give you the chance to create meaningful relationships with other future social workers. Also, within our semester program, there is a two-week exchange with Mexican Social Work students which gives you the opportunity to make international social work connections and friendships.

—> Check out giving a glimpse of what the exchange program with Mexican students looks like.

(2) Complete an internship abroad.

Not only will an internship in Mexico challenge you and help you grow as a social worker, but it will also look great on resumes and grad school applications!

—> Check out at a school.

—> Check out one of our , Con Nosotros, an alternative school for kids with Cerebral Palsy.

(3) ¿Hablas Español?

Studying abroad in Mexico will give you the chance to improve on or begin to learn Spanish. With a rising Latino population in the U.S., learning Spanish will open the door to many other job and career possibilities. Students take Spanish courses at our partner school .

Did I mention that they have a pool?

(4) Learn from the experts!

Our educational framework brings you out of the classroom to learn about social work’s core principles like service, social justice, dignity, importance of human relationships, integrity and cultural competence. Learn directly from those that are being affected by current policies, and those working to make a change in their own country such as migrant workers, LGBTQIA rights activists, indigenous peoples, farmers, and more!

(5) Experiences like no other.

So what did you do this weekend? Eat lunch on top of a pyramid, climb a volcano, visit a world renowned museum, or travel to one of Mexico’s popular cities? While you’re in Mexico you will have the option to go on numerous phenomenal excursions!

(6) Graduate on time.

The Social Work program is designed so you can complete your core social work classes and internship while abroad. You may also be able to complete other requirements like foreign language, physical fitness, art or religion, while you are abroad.

(7) Take a Chance – when will you get to have such an amazing experience such as this?!

Let’s be honest, when will you get another chance like this? After graduation the opportunities to travel or spend a whole semester abroad become more and more challenging, with work, family and the demands we all have at home! So take this chance to expand your horizon, experience new things and have a blast doing it!

For more information take a look at our site , or send us an email at globaled@augsburg.edu.

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