Simpson Center for the Humanities, schadmin@uw.edu, 206.543.3920
Co-sponsored by the department of Comparative History of Ideas, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Latinx Faculty & Staff Association Part of the project on Digital Border Technologies & Media.

Panel Discussion
In conversation with Diana Flores Ruíz (Cinema & Media Studies) and Vanessa Freije (Jackson School of International Studies), co-authors Mike Wilson and Tony Lucero (Comparative History of Ideas) discuss their new book, What Side Are You On?: A Tohono O’odham Life across Borders. In this collaborative memoir, Wilson and Lucero examine the lessons that emerge from one Indigenous man’s journey through environmental injustice, military service in Central America, struggles with Christianity, filmmaking, and human rights activism along the US-Mexico borderlands. 

Mike Wilson (Tohono O’odham) is a human rights activist, US military retiree, and film documentarian. In May 2024, Mike received an Honorary Doctorate in Divinity from the San Francisco Theological Seminary, now part of the University of Redlands. He lives with his wife, Susan Ruff, in Tucson, Arizona. 

Tony Lucero is Chair and Professor of the Comparative History of Ideas Department at the University of Washington, Seattle and holds a joint appointment in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.