What is the Human Rights Council?
The American University Human Rights Council is a faculty-coordinated and student-run umbrella organization that brings together all of the many human rights activities at American University. The Council promotes the integration of human rights issues throughout the curriculum through information sharing, a small grants program, and by other direct forms of support.
How is the Council related to Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs?
The Council is a project of the Ethics Peace and Global Affairs Program (EPGA),an interdisciplinary program administered jointly by the School of International Service (SIS) and the Department of Philosophy and Religion in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). The program builds directly on the intersections between the idea of “positive peace” and contemporary ethical theory. The current directors of the program are: Julie Mertus, Professor, SIS (202-885-2215) and Evan Berry, Assistant Professor, CAS (202-885-2493)
For more information, or for an application, see: http://www.american.edu/sis/ipcr/EPGA.cfm
What is the Human Rights Week?
Every fall, the American University Human Rights Council celebrates human rights with a week of speakers and other activities. It is a student-run endeavor that draws on alumni, faculty and leading experts in the human rights field.
Why would an AU student look at the Council web page on a regular basis?
Through the extensive faculty directory, students can discover faculty who are teaching and researching in the student’s areas of interest. With the extensive list of resources available, students can use the Council web page as a way to land a position as a research assistant with faculty or find out about internships and jobs around DC as well as gather information about new resources for writing term papers or planning field research, helping students excel in the classroom. They may also wish, as a member of a student organization, to apply for a small grant for a public event, on campus, related to human rights.
Why would an AU faculty member look at the Council web page on a regular basis?
Although a large number of AU faculty share common interests in human rights and social justice, few opportunities exist for them to meet, especially across disciplines. Through the extensive faculty directory, faculty teaching and researching in the same subject area can use the Council web page to discover each other. They might swap works-in-progress, share teaching resources, apply jointly for a grant or conference presentation, refer students to one another, learn about lectures and workshops on AU’s campuses, post information about student internships, and discover resources that will aid their own research and help them with their student mentoring. They may also wish, as an individual faculty member, or as a member of an AU program or project, to apply for a small grant for a public event, on campus, related to human rights.
What is the "Small Grants Program?"
This is a small pool of money that encourages and supports human rights initiatives on campus. Students, faculty and staff may apply by filling out the short application form (PDF) that can be printed from the Web. The amount requested should be between $100 and $1,200. Illustrations of the kinds of things that could be funded are honorarium for speakers, the cost of food at a reception, the printing of posters to advertise an on-campus event, a cash award for a poster contest, etc. The major requirement is that the event/program/project must be open to the public.
Faculty may use the fund to pay for a small honorarium for a guest lecturer for a course, but in that event, the talk must be moved to a room large enough to support a public audience (Kay Spiritual Chapel often is a good option) and publicized on the Council calendar. There is no deadline; instead applications are considered on a rolling basis, until the funding for that year has run out.
For an application form, see: www.american.edu/sis/hrc/Grants.cfm
