Become an Affiliate
Greetings from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice!
We would like to invite to you to join our growing network of affiliated faculty members. While the Rapoport Center is housed in the UT law school, our mission is to build a multidisciplinary community engaged in the study and practice of human rights that promotes the economic and political enfranchisement of marginalized individuals and groups both locally and globally. Our faculty affiliates hail from a variety of disciplines: the Anthropology, English, Government, History, Journalism, and Sociology departments, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and the UT Law School are among those represented. Through our events, projects, and other activities, our affiliated faculty are able to interact with other members of the human rights community, including visiting researchers and scholars as well as our own Human Rights Scholars, undergraduate interns, and summer fellows.
As "partners for change at the intersection of academics and advocacy," we are constantly looking for ways to expand what we can do for the UT academic community. We hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to contribute your unique experience and expertise to the Rapoport Center as an affiliated faculty member!
If you are interested in affiliating with us, please fill out and return the Affiliated Faculty Information Sheet to Center Administrator William Chandler.
Our faculty affiliate program offers a variety of opportunities for involvement, including:
Human rights research support and collaboration.
- Interdisciplinary Working Groups
The Center sponsors working groups on topics originated by affiliated faculty. You may propose your own, or join an existing one. The Center currently supports four groups of faculty and students: the Border Wall Project, Health and Human Rights, Human Rights and the Arts, and the Research Cluster on Women, Gender and Human Rights. To join one of these existing groups, you can email the respective group organizers, listed on our website here. To propose a new Working Group, please refer to the call for proposals here. - Research Assistance
The Center's human rights scholars (law and graduate students) are available to conduct small (10 hours or less) human rights research projects. For more information, contact William Chandler. - Visiting Scholars
We have successfully sponsored several applications to bring visiting scholars here, using the LLILAS Visiting Resource Professor and similar programs. We welcome you to send additional suggestions for scholars who would enrich the human rights discussion at UT to William Chandler.
Forum for intellectual discussion for human rights.
The Rapoport Center hosts a variety of events and sponsors projects that provide participants with a chance to engage in informed and meaningful conversations about human rights issues and advocacy.
- Human Rights Happy Hour Speaker Series
Our speaker series features faculty of various disciplines from UT and other universities, who present works in progress and involve participants in their development. We would love to hear your suggestions for speakers – to propose a speaker, please contact William Chandler. For an online schedule of our current speakers and to listen to audio from past presentations, please click here. - Annual Conference
Each year, we host a conference to explore international human rights issues from various angles. Past conference topics have included the enduring social and institutional challenges that communities and polities encounter following conflict, UT's multifaceted role in human rights research, teaching, and practice, a photojournalism exhibit of the 1980s civil war in El Salvador, an examination of U.S. human rights policy through a discussion of U.S. diplomat George Lister's work, and the challenge of marrying the diversity of culture with the potentially univocal language of human rights.
We encourage affiliated faculty to join the conference committee, propose panels and papers, contribute to the planning of next year's conference, and encourage students to participate and attend. More information about our conferences can be found here. - Human Rights Working Paper Series
In 2011, the Center launched a Working Paper Series (WPS) that invites contributions from students, faculty, and advocates at UT and elsewhere who critically examine topics related to international human rights law and/or discourse. The blog-style format encourages readers to contribute their thoughts and allows authors to receive timely feedback on their work. For more information, please visit the WPS site.
Connection with students.
We strive to connect faculty and students across disciplines who share similar interests in human rights, and to that end, we offer several opportunities for student interaction.
- Student Research
The Working Group Program encourages faculty to incorporate students into their research. We will give special consideration to proposals that include prominent and substantive roles for students.
To better connect students and faculty with shared interests, we are also in the process of creating a database of our affiliates' research interests and available research or volunteer opportunities for students. - Human Rights Coursework
Every semester, we compile a list of our affiliates' human rights course offerings, which can be found on our website here.
Impact on Center strategy, programs, and operations.
We have a number of committees that allow our faculty affiliates to become more involved in guiding Center direction and activities, including the following:
- Steering Committee
- Annual Conference Committee
- Undergraduate Curriculum and Outreach Committee
- Graduate Curriculum and Outreach Committee
- Speakers and Program Committee
- Fundraising Committee
Outlet to share achievements, publications, or events.
We are happy to publicize and support our affiliates' events, achievements, and publications that share our mission. If you would like to submit an announcement to be featured on our website or in our email newsletter, please contact William Chandler.