Lisa Meierotto is the Program Lead of Boise State University’s Global Studies program, which she helped create. Along with teaching, Lisa researches intersections between global migration, human rights, and environmental justice.

Lisa grew up in Idaho and lived in Ecuador, Cuba and Costa Rica while earning her degree in global studios and anthropology. She has a master’s degree in international development and a Ph.D in cultural and environmental anthropology.

In our conversation, Lisa shares about what drew her to global studies, what it’s like to be a newcomer in a different country, her research at the southern U.S. border, and displacement trends facing communities around the world. We focus on the history of colonialism and ongoing resource extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the top country of origin for refugees resettling in Idaho.