Borderland Field Course 2024

Get inspired by the last year's edition of the course and watch this video to find out what's in store for you this year! You can also find the videos for the year's 2023, 2018 and 2019 here.

“Borderland: Critical Approaches to Field Research and Engagement in the Global South” is an interdisciplinary field course that is jointly developed and offered by UC-Berkeley and University of Copenhagen. 

Course overview

It is a summer course that takes place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, worth 7.5 ECTS points, and is an initiative developed as part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) network.  This year, the course will take place from July 8th to August 2nd.

The course provides you with 1 week of lectures revolving around this year's theme on Migration, Mobilities and Immobilities in context of Borderlands, by professors from world leading universities. It gives you 2 weeks of practical experience interning with a local NGO or an ongoing research project in Chiang Mai, and 1 week of exposure and insights into developing a research proposal that can be used for future research careers. 

Read more about the course here.

How to Apply

To sign up for the course, you must submit an application. The application consists of a) completed application form including b) Motivation for taking the course and current research interests as they relate to the themes of Migration, Mobilities and Immobilities (max 500 words).

Deadline for applying is April 1st, 2024. The application form can be found here: Application form

UCPH students: no tuition fee

EU/EAA citizens (including ETH Zürich): tuition fee DKK 6,000 (app. 900 USD)

Non-EU/EAA citizens (including Cambridge and Oxford): tuition fee of DKK 12,000 (app. 1,800 USD)

Included in tuition are: Field trip, welcome bag, welcome reception, farewell dinner and IARU Diploma.

For other costs associated with the course, see under 'Remarks'.

Funding support

All non-EU students (including ETH, Oxford and Cambridge) can apply for a 1,000 USD scholarship from IARU to help offset the cost of program participation. There is a limited number of scholarships available. To apply for a scholarship please use this form:  Stipend application form

For students enrolled at UCPH - only

Students enrolled at UCPH will be eligible to apply for a UCPH travel stipend, if accepted on the course.

How to apply:

a) Invitation letter to the Borderland course

b) Pre-approval of the Borderland course from your own study board/Faculty (if relevant). In case you don't have this available yet due to long processing time at your study board, just note that you will re-send it as soon as you have it. 

Deadline for application May 1.

NB. No need for a motivated application – just send the documents as stated above.

For other questions contact the course coordinator Andreas Egelund Christensen: aec@samf.ku.dk