Overview
The Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights & Social Justice honors the life and work of Barbara Harlow (1948-2017), who was the Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor of English Literature at the University of Texas. She was a committed colleague, friend, and mentor to countless students, activists, and intellectuals. As a collaboration between the Rapoport Center and the Bridging Disciplines Programs (BDP), the internship aims to introduce BDP students to Harlow’s scholarship and activism, and to encourage them to imagine future trajectories for her work.
This internship is chosen to honor Barbara Harlow because it was largely through her efforts that the Rapoport Center and the BDP partnered to create the Human Rights & Social Justice BDP certificate in 2009. Harlow chaired the faculty panel for the certificate from its inception until 2017. While the internship is open to all BDP students, regardless of which certificate they are pursuing, it is meant for students who are working on issues of social justice.
Barbara Harlow’s intellectual praxis crossed continents and encompassed diverse agendas: resistance, translation, political engagement and solidarity, human rights, and pedagogy. She contributed greatly to the University of Texas at Austin, not only through the English department, the Rapoport Center, and the BDP, but through several area studies programs and centers, including African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Studies. To learn more about her life and work, please visit the Rapoport Center’s tribute page and the website for our 2017 conference, Barbara Harlow: The Sequel.
Fall, spring, and summer internships are available for undergraduates who are interested in:
- Working on human rights and social justice research and advocacy projects
- Learning how an academic center functions
- Engaging in human rights scholarship
- Gaining practical experience
- Collaborating with faculty, staff, and students
The internship is made possible by seed money that Harlow gifted to the Rapoport Center and the BDP. Though the internship is similar to the Rapoport Center’s standard undergraduate internship, it offers a higher stipend ($3,000 for Spring 2023) and requires three additional components:
- In the cover letter, students should reflect (in one paragraph) on how Harlow’s scholarship and activism might influence their work with the Rapoport Center and their pursuit of human rights and social justice more broadly.
- During the internship, each recipient will write a piece for our Human Rights Commentary page, which either engages directly with Harlow’s work or uses her work as a lens through which to engage critically with a topic.
- After the internship, each recipient will create a poster to reflect on the internship, taking into account Harlow’s impact on their experience, and present it at the Annual BDP poster session in April. (Fall and Summer interns will submit at the end of their respective term, and then present in April.)
Selected interns should be available at least 10 hours per week during the semester, and 20 hours per week during the summer. Depending on funding, between one and three internships will be offered per year. Students who are not selected for the Barbara Harlow Internship may be considered for our standard undergraduate internship.
Application
Summer interns should be available to work 20 hours a week during the semester. This is a paid opportunity ($3,000 for the Summer 2023 semester).
Rapoport Center undergraduate interns bring energy, engagement, and expanded capacities to the Center’s programming. They will support various initiatives depending on their backgrounds, interests, and the needs of the Center. For Summer 2023, we are particularly interested in interns who have expertise or interest in the Center’s thematic priorities: environmental justice and climate justice, inequality, reproductive justice, among other focal points.
Internships are recommended for undergraduates interested in:
- Working on human rights and social justice research and advocacy projects
- Learning how an academic center functions
- Engaging in human rights scholarship
- Gaining practical administrative experience
- Collaborating with faculty, staff, and students on human rights research, advocacy, and education
Intern projects may include the following:
- Maintain websites for the Rapoport Center’s projects and initiatives
- Work on the publication of the Center’s Annual Review by writing and editing articles, designing layout, and working extensively with the software program Adobe InDesign
- Engage in human rights research and writing
- Expand the Center’s social media and general communications outreach
- Serve as liaison to UT undergraduate community and help develop the Center’s undergraduate outreach
- Assisting Co-Directors, Program Coordinator, Postdoctoral Fellow, Human Rights Scholars, graduate students, and affiliated faculty with other projects and tasks as assigned
Eligibility: This internship is only open to BDP students. If you are not a BDP student, please consider our standard undergraduate internship. Please note that this internship is open to UT students of all citizenship statuses.
Required Qualifications:
- Commitment to working on issues of human rights and justice
- Excellent writing and editing ability
- Individual initiative and flexibility
- Strong organizational and time management skills
- Professional demeanor
The following qualifications may be preferred in some candidates:
Priority:
- Demonstrated expertise with publication and graphic design software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite)
- Website development experience (including the curation and organization of public-facing digital material)
- Demonstrated expertise with videography, podcasts, and/or webisode production
- Demonstrated interest in themes such as care work, essential work, automation, and the global dimensions of worker precarity
- Demonstrated interest in issues such as reproductive justice and environmental/climate justice
Also:
- Proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese
- Experience with scholarly research and editing
- Journalism experience
Summer internships offer a scholarship of $3000, and selected interns should be available at least 20 hours per week.
Qualified students should submit the following items in a single PDF file through our online form. Please make sure the file name includes your full name.
- Cover letter: state why you are interested in the position; demonstrate basic knowledge of Rapoport Center programs and activities. Be sure to address your specific skills and qualifications.
- Resume/CV: be sure to indicate any relevant skills or proficiency in languages other than English.
- Transcript: we will accept both unofficial and official transcripts.
- Writing sample (3-5 pages): it does not need to relate directly to human rights, though that is preferable.
