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Human Rights Program

Borderlands installation by artist Emilio Rojas, part of Where No Wall Remains at Bard College.
The Program in Human Rights and the Arts is a new and integrated curriculum with a focus on human rights and the arts at both the graduate and undergraduate level. It includes network-wide teaching, research, fellowships, and public engagement at the intersection of activism and the arts. 

Opportunities + More

  • Faculty Research Grants: Human Rights and the Arts
    The OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts invites applications for research support from faculty pursuing projects at the intersection of human rights and the arts. The goal of this grants program is to support OSUN faculty research—including scholarly research, investigation/documentation, and research-based art practices—and to strengthen the connections between colleagues at different OSUN institutions.
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  • Student Microgrants: Human Rights and the Arts
    The OSUN Human Rights and the Arts Center at Bard College invites applications for microgrants to students pursuing campus- and community-based initiatives in human rights and the arts. The goal of this grant program is to support students at OSUN institutions who seek to create or extend projects in human rights and social justice, particularly those with an artistic dimension, that are based at the institution or in the community (or beyond).

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.

Programming + Leadership

Programming + Leadership

  • Jason De León, “Where No Wall Remains,” Live Arts Bard Biennial, November 21–24, 2019. Photo courtesy the artist.
    New Initiatives
    • Integrated network-wide undergraduate classes
    • Curatorial collaborations with the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College
    • Support for student and faculty research and engagement projects
    • Postdoctoral and other fellowships
    • Internships
  • Leadership
    Ziad Abu-Rish, Bard College
    Tania El Khoury, Bard College
    Thomas Keenan, Bard College
    Gideon Lester, Bard College
    Renata Uitz, Central European University

    Contact us: [email protected]