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UW Instructors! Invite a human rights advocate to your class!

In the 2022-23 school year, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) will make funds available to support honoraria for human rights practitioners as guest speakers in University of Washington classes. We are currently seeking proposals from instructional faculty on all three UW campuses, in all departments and programs, working in all areas of human rights, to bring a perspective from the “front lines” of human rights efforts to the classroom (guest speakers must be in-person/physically in classroom).

Guest speakers could be professional rights advocates, grassroots organizers, and/or members of a community directly affected by a human rights abuse whose first-person perspectives are often underrepresented in academic discussions. We particularly welcome proposals from our Center’s Faculty Associates, and proposals that may help strengthen longer-term relationships between faculty and frontline human rights organizations.

We welcome proposals for all three quarters of 2022-23. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until funds are spent; to apply email uwchr@uw.edu with the information below.

What we need from you*:

• The name of the speaker you wish to invite, the organization they represent and their role within it.
• The course in which they will speak and the approximate date for which you’d like to invite them.
• A brief description of how involving the speaker will enhance your course.
• A brief description of any previous collaboration you may have had with the speaker and/or his/her organization, and/or any future intended collaboration.
• Upon completion of the guest lecture, provide at least two original photos and a summary of four to five sentences summarizing the presentation and its impacts for your class/students. These may be shared with our constituents during meetings, on social media, via email and/or on our website.

*We anticipate that this would take no more than one page.

If your proposal is selected, we will provide $300 towards an honorarium payable to your speaker or their organization. Your home department is responsible for processing the honorarium. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate requests to split honoraria between multiple individuals or organizations. This funding opportunity is not designed to support conferences or talks given outside of regular classroom instruction.

Founded in 2009, the UW Center for Human Rights aims to build partnerships between the academic community and the world of human rights practice. We aim to increase opportunities for UW students to learn about human rights through hands-on involvement, and to build pathways for UW research to inform advocacy, policymaking, and activism, towards a world in which all rights are more fully respected. Every year, we offer funds to students seeking to conduct hands-on human rights projects in partnership with off-campus organizations. We also support faculty interested in research collaborations with human rights organizations. This is a pilot effort to facilitate the involvement of practitioners within regular course instruction. We welcome further suggestions.

Submit your application to uwchr@uw.edu