The Southwest Folklife Alliance operates at the intersection of scholarship and lived experience, and we have always believed the most meaningful research happens in genuine partnership with communities. We welcome educators and researchers who share our commitment to reciprocal, community-centered inquiry.
FivE Ways To Get Involved
Learn Research Toolkits
SFA’s Folklife PAR methodology brings a folklorist’s lens to participatory action research, recognizing that the people most affected by inequities already hold deep knowledge through their own lived experience. We have trained more than 100 community members, artists, and researchers across Tucson, San Antonio, and San Francisco in PAR methods that center traditional cultural knowledge as a tool for community analysis, asset mapping, and social change. The Folklife PAR Network serves as an ongoing platform for practitioners to share tools, exchange resources, and connect across communities.
Visit the Folklife Par Network or contact us
Explore AN Academic Partnership
As an affiliate of the University of Arizona’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, SFA has deep and active partnerships across departments, programs, and research centers. We collaborate with faculty and students in cultural studies, public folklore, anthropology, public health, disability studies, and more, embedding folklife practice within broader academic conversations about identity, heritage, and community. If you are a researcher or educator interested in co-designing a project, placing students in field learning roles, or developing a formal partnership with SFA, we are eager to talk.
To explore academic partnership or research collaboration, contact SFA Senior Advisor Dr. Maribel Alvarez at AlvarezM@Arizona.edu.
Write OR ASSigN BorderLore
BorderLore, SFA’s free online journal published six times a year, has been assigned as reading in university and high school classrooms for students studying culture and heritage of the borderlands region. We welcome contributions from educators and researchers who want to share their work with a public audience of 9,000+ readers, and we actively seek pieces that translate scholarly insight into accessible, community-relevant storytelling.
To pitch a piece or discuss using BorderLore in your curriculum visit Borderlore
Explore Opportunites at TMY
Tucson Meet Yourself (TMY) functions as a living laboratory each October, bringing together 500+ artists from 65+ cultural communities for three free days of demonstration, performance, and exchange. The festival has long served as a site for ethnographic fieldwork, honors projects, and community-based research, and SFA actively supports students and faculty who want to engage TMY as a scholarly resource. Educators can also connect their courses to the festival through structured volunteer roles, observation assignments, or collaborative documentation projects.
To discuss research or educational engagement at TMY, contact SFA Senior Advisor Dr. Maribel Alvarez at AlvarezM@Arizona.edu.
Research or Republish from our Archives
SFA maintains an archive of ethnographic fieldwork, oral histories, publications, and documentary materials gathered across decades of work in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Researchers interested in accessing SFA’s documentation, collaborating on new fieldwork, or connecting with SFA’s network of artists, culture bearers, and community organizations are encouraged to reach out. We are committed to open, ethical access to cultural materials and to research practices that benefit the communities they document.