Inaugural Graduates of Masters Program in Human Rights and the Arts Present MA Theses

Recently, the OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College (CHRA) presented thesis projects from students in the inaugural class of its MA Program in Human Rights and the Arts. Each of these projects is based on original research, carried out during the students’ second year in the program. Projects featured a range of research methods and subject matter, taking the forms of an installation, a live performance, a written work, or a combination of all three.

The thesis exhibition highlights a core component of CHRA's graduate program, which empowers students to develop a topic at the intersection of human rights and the arts, making both methodological and analytic interventions into this newly emerging field. Some of the projects were developed from research conducted within courses in the MA program. Others built on research and artistic practices carried out before or in parallel with the student's enrollment in the program.

“The thesis projects exhibited are a testament to the rigorous research, broad array of topics, and diversity of forms that are at the heart of the intersection of human rights and the arts,” said Ziad Abu-Rish, Director of the MA program.

Tania El Khoury, Director of the OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College, said "The graduating students’ research projects have produced critical knowledge on important topics and are being shared in this exhibition in creative, accessible, and innovative ways."
 
Adam HajYahia’s project on “Carnal Politics: Sex, Desire, and Anti-Colonial Deviance in Mandate Palestine,” a written article and a speculative photo exhibit, looks beyond the colonial archive to uncover the politics of sex and desire in Mandatory Palestine (1918–1948). The work is based on archival research, including police records and court proceedings, internal and external colonial correspondences, public statements, and press writings. While acknowledging work already done around well-documented issues such as British colonial rule, Zionist settlement practices, and Palestinian resistance, the project instead focuses on the carnal as a libidinal force that permeates all these transformations.
 
Carol Montealegre's project, "Howls in the Mountains," is an installation performance based on research conducted in El Huila, Colombia with Asociación de Mujeres Huilenses Por La Paz (Asomhupaz). El Huila is comprised of women who are former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group better known by its Spanish acronym FARC, which signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016. The project explores the political context of the so-called “post-conflict agenda” and the therapeutic potential of ancestral medicine. Howls in the Mountains is an audio-visual experiment where the activists testify and reflect on their past experiences and present healing journeys within the context of being reincorporated into their broader communities.

The exhibition took place in locations across the Bard College Annandale campus as well as in nearby towns Tivoli and Barrytown.
Read about all of the thesis projects here.

Post Date: 05-19-2023