The Dr. Lisa Sable Brown Endowed Fund for Human Rights provides financial resources to benefit graduate students involved in research about, and advocacy for, basic human rights, particularly around the issue of modern-day slavery and other grave forms of oppression.
Dr. Lisa Sable Brown is an alumna of the University of Washington, where she studied psychology before obtaining a Doctorate in Education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1971. Dr. Brown spent her teaching career cultivating awareness and compassion in young people. During her career, she taught all age levels, but enjoyed teaching 2nd grade the most. She was particularly motivated by the urgency of stopping modern-day slavery and other grave forms of oppression in our world, especially those violations that forced people and young girls into slavery.
Fund Eligibility
The Dr. Lisa Sable Brown Fund provides financial resources to benefit graduate students to study and/or conduct research about human rights. In 2025, we will have approximately $10,000 available to distribute; the entire amount may be issued in a single award or split between multiple awardees. The number of awards and amounts will vary depending on the number and quality of applications.
- Currently enrolled graduate students at UW Seattle, Bothell, and Tacoma are eligible to apply.
- The award could be used towards tuition, research, travel, books, materials, equipment.
- US citizenship or permanent resident status is NOT REQUIRED.
Fund Priority:
Priority will be given to graduate student research that identifies acts of oppression of an individual’s human rights and advocates abolishing such practices that may be viewed as a form of “slavery.” Such acts can be in the form of any practice that abuses individuals regardless of age or gender, including, but not limited to, child labor, starvation wages, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and child military services.
In addition to the above priority, the UWCHR Steering Committee has voted to established a set of criteria and priorities for our graduate student funding opportunities.
The following are not requirements; they are priorities. This means the selection committee could still issue an award to an outstanding candidate whose work doesn’t align with all these criteria. Each of the five criteria below are of equal importance.
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- Applications from PhD students
- Those conducting pre-dissertation work, or at the final stage of dissertation completion
- Projects working in areas or topics underrepresented in the field of human rights
- Projects designed in collaboration with communities who are directly affected by rights violations, or employing participatory action research
- Projects that engage centrally with human rights practices and literatures
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Any proposed expenditure permitted under the terms of the endowment agreement is valid; we do not prioritize those needing to cover certain types of costs over others.
Application Materials
Applications for the 2025 cycle will be open February 10 – March 17, 2025.
Learn more about the funds by joining an upcoming info session.
You will be asked to provide the following information:
- Biographic information, status as student, contact information, GPA, etc.
- CV/Resume with current contact information
- Proposal that answers the following questions (approx. 1000 words)
- A description of the research/study and the goals of the travel, if any travel is included.
- What experiences do you have (if any) in the field of human rights?
- Outline the purpose of your research/study and its relevance to the study of (or practice of promoting) human rights.
- A detailed budget describing how the funds would be used and, if applicable, how this support would supplement other funds, fellowships, and grants.
- Unofficial transcripts.
- A letter of recommendation from the student’s primary advisor or committee member.
- The names and full contact information (campus address, phone, and email) of two University of Washington (or past non-UW) faculty members who are familiar with your work.
For a list of frequently asked questions about our funding, click here.
If you have any questions about the application process, please do not hesitate to contact us at uwchr@uw.edu.