A new class from June 30 to August 4, 2021, during Summer II at University of St. Thomas, will use an innovative online teaching approach to examine the economic history of the U.S.-Mexico relationship. The Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) will connect students and professors from UST and Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) in Mexico for a more global and transformative experience.

Assistant Professor for UST’s Cameron School of Business and host for UST’s “Global Bridges” podcast, Beverly Barrett, Ph.D, will instruct the class titled Mexico-U.S.: Trade and Finance. Prior to her position at UST, Barrett was a visiting professor in international business at UDLAP.

Her co-instructor from UDLAP for the online portion of the class will be Dr. Luis Barroso.

Barrett said, “We’re examining this particular relationship, because the U.S. and Mexico are No. 1 trade partners. As we look at the recent decades in trade and finance with increasing economic integration, we believe the COIL experience, collaborating with our institutional partners on the other side of the border, will be especially enriching and even transformative for students from both countries.”

Barrett explained the class will be delivered in person at UST and online. Students will form small binational groups for presenting and writing business strategy specific to global firms which operate in both countries. Content will cover trade and finance starting with the Mexican sovereign debt crises of the 1980s, including the impact of NAFTA implementation since the 1990s and the recent USMCA/T-MEC/CUSMA updates.

“We also hope to arrange field trips for campus and business visits to Puebla and in Houston in the future,” Barrett added.

In addition, students and faculty from both countries may be interested in study-abroad and visiting-professor opportunities in the future.

Cameron School of Business students will earn credit for undergraduate or graduate level ECON 3331, MBA 5326, and MIB 6326, or ECON 4393 and MBA 5392.

For more information about the course, contact Dr. Barrett at barretbf@stthom.edu.

To listen to the podcast episode “MEXICO” from Global Bridges: A North American Perspective on Health and Economic Recovery, with guest Agustín Barrios Gómez, listen here: