Sara Bollinger holds a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies, which she received from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, International Studies and Political Science, at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri.
As part of her Master’s degree, Sara conducted field research throughout Southern Mexico. Her research focuses on undocumented migration from Mexico to the United States, and her thesis more specifically identifies a new problem in the migration phenomenon: missing migrants. Her thesis, titled “The New Desaparecidos: Effects of Missing Migrants on Families in Sending Communities of Southern Mexico,” tells the stories of the missing, which Sara gathered through in-depth interviews with families of missing migrants. Furthermore, Sara’s study evaluates the extent to which migrants that disappear along the US-Mexico border meet the internationally accepted norms of forced disappearances.
Sara has presented her research at several academic and community conferences, including: Society for Applied Anthropology, Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, Western Social Science Association, El Pueblo Community Meeting, and others. Her work has been published by local newspapers, both in Tucson and St. Louis, and will be the subject of a four-part radio series on national satellite radio in the fall of 2009. Currently, Sara is working with the University of Arizona Press to publish her thesis.
In addition to her field research, Sara has been actively involved in the immigration field for several years. Sara first joined the US Legal Solutions team in 2006, as a legal assistant. Upon moving to Arizona, Sara became an active volunteer and ultimately a paid employee for Humane Borders, a non-profit organization that establishes and maintains more than 100 water stations in the desert region of the US-Mexico border. Sara worked in the Mixtec communities of Oaxaca, an indigenous group of Southern Mexico, where she studied the language, Tu’un savi, and visited many villages in the Valles Centrales region. She helped develop the Center for Latin American Studies’ Migration Research Group and the larger Binational Border Research Ethics and Methodologies team.
Sara is completely bilingual. As the Director of Outreach, Sara works in the community, expanding the work of the firm through presentations, seminars, workshops, and through her attendance at many important Latino events in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
Sara is the Director of Outreach and Office Manager at US Legal Solutions LLC.
Last update: 08-Sep-2009
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