Human Rights and the Arts

Program Focus

We aim to confront the current practical and conceptual challenges of human rights discourse by stimulating new ways of thinking; developing new strategies of activism and engagement; incubating new relationships between activists, scholars, and artists; and working at a truly global scale.

The Center for Human Rights and the Arts builds on existing human rights projects across OSUN that share a commitment to the interdisciplinary critical exploration of human rights discourse and practice, while giving new emphasis to the explosive force of artistic research and creation in struggles for rights and justice. It will link scholars with artists and activists outside the academic environment as well as within it, creating new opportunities for inquiry, practice, and experimentation.

The Program in Human Rights and the Arts will educate a new generation of undergraduate and MA students, including artists, scholars, and activists, in an international, comparative, and interdisciplinary curriculum. It includes network-wide teaching, exchanges, research, fellowships, and public engagement at the intersection of activism and the arts. The first MA cohort will begin at Bard College in fall 2021.