Dr. Ireland (Ph.D., Harvard University - Political Science) was a Visiting Professor at AUB in 2002-03. He returned as regular faculty in September 2005 in the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration. His publications include 2 single-authored books and over a dozen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, most of them on immigrants in Western Europe and North America. He spent the past two years in Texas researching migrant and border health and earning an M.P.H. (University of Texas, 2005).

Public health challenges along the Texas-Mexico border are numerous, severe, and difficult to address. Behavioral scientists are helping overcome barriers to binational research and policy in ongoing projects in the Rio Grande Valley. They are examining the influence of social capital on quality of life and employing a social network analysis strategy to understand the spread of TB