Human Rights & Social Justice

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice is now accepting applications for the Summer 2022 Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights and Social Justice. This internship, which offers a modest stipend, is only open to BDP students. Applications will be due by midnight on April 12 2021.

The Barbara Harlow Internship 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. Read more about Harlow and about the internship here.

Harlow interns bring excitement and expanded capabilities to the Rapoport Center and play an important role, supporting various initiatives depending on their background, interest, and the needs of the Center. For Summer 2022, we are particularly interested in interns who can help us with continued project-related follow-up to our 2021 Pop-Up Institute, “Beyond the Future of Work: New Paradigms for Addressing Global Inequality.” The project focuses on exploring pressing questions around the future of work addressing diverse themes such as care work, essential work, automation, and the global dimensions of worker precarity.

Summer 2022 projects may include the following:

• Maintain the website for the Rapoport Center’s project “Beyond the Future of Work: New Paradigms for Addressing Global Inequality,” and other project-related follow-up
• Engage in human rights research and writing
• Expand the Center’s social media outreach
• Serve as liaison to UT undergraduate community and help develop Center’s undergraduate outreach
• Work on the publication of the Center’s Annual Review by writing and editing articles, designing layout, and working extensively with the software program InDesign

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:

• Website development experience (including the curation and organization of public-facing digital material)
• Demonstrated expertise with videography, podcasts, and/or webisode production
• Demonstrated expertise with publication and graphic design software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite)
• Demonstrated interest in themes such as care work, essential work, automation, and the global dimensions of worker precarity

Also:

• Proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese
• Experience with scholarly research and editing
• Journalism experience

Additional Information & Expectations:
Selected interns should be available at least 15-20 hours per week during the summer internship period. Though the internship is similar to the Rapoport Center’s standard undergraduate internship, the Harlow internship offers a higher stipend 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 (see below).
• 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)

How to Apply:

Qualified students should submit the following items through our online application system.

• Cover letter: State why you are interested in the position; demonstrate basic knowledge of our programs and activities. Reflect (in one paragraph) on how Barbara Harlow’s scholarship and activism might influence your work with the Rapoport Center and your pursuit of human rights and social justice more broadly.
• CV/Resume: Indicate any relevant skills and foreign language proficiency
• Transcript: Unofficial is acceptable; an official copy can be mailed or emailed if needed, to arrive by the application due date
• List of three references. At least two must be UT faculty; include name, title, and contact information; full letters not required
• Writing sample 3-5 pages; does not need to relate directly to human rights, although that is preferable

Application Deadline: Midnight, April 1, 2022

Questions? Email Nina Ebner, Rapoport Center Postdoctoral Fellow