Since its inception, the Southwest Center has sponsored dozens of research projects that have enhanced our understanding of trans-border culture and history.

• Linguistic and literary studies of the Yaqui People of Sonora;

• Diachronic analyses of the economics, cultures, and history of northern Mexico;

• Research in comparative urban development;

•  Ethnobotanical studies among the Mayo and Guarijío peoples of southern Sonora.

• Multidisciplinary studies of the region that explore cultural dimensions of plant cultivation and land use;

• Southwestern folklore;

• Study and inventory of Sonoran religious art;

• Studies in the architecture and urbanism of northwest Mexico and the American Southwest.