Aaron Strain is Professor and Baker Ferguson Chair of Politics and Leadership at Whitman College, where he teaches and writes about global food politics, immigration, political economy, the environment, and the U.S.-Mexico border. (He changed his name from Aaron Bobrow-Strain in 2024).

He has an MA in Latin American Studies from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. He’s received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation and Social Science Research Council and won teaching prizes from UC Berkeley and Whitman College.

He is the author of the multi-award-winning The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story, as well as two other books. He has written numerous academic journal articles and for non-academic venues such as The Believer and The Chronicle of Higher Education Review. He's a public-facing scholar who's been interviewed for the New York Times, The Boston Globe, NPR's Morning Edition and Weekend Morning Edition, PRX's To the Best of Our Knowledge, and the National Geographic Channel, and he has appeared as a guest on podcasts such as 99% Invisible, Gastropod, and the American Writers' Museum Podcast.

He was co-founder of the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition and has a background in community organizing. As a teacher, he also works to build connections between community and classroom.