NEW COLLEGE
SOCIAL JUSTICE & HUMAN RIGHTS MASTER'S PROGRAM
SJHR Newsletter
Volume 1 Issue 1: Spring 2009
SJHR Newsletter (Download PDF)
Volume 1 Issue 2: Fall 2009
SJHR Newsletter (Download PDF)
Director's Message
Dear Friends,
I am thrilled to introduce the second newsletter of our exciting MA program in Social Justice and Human Rights. Now in our second year, we have already exceeded all expectations for the program. We have developed a one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary and applied curriculum that focuses on educating students to work with affected populations to address social justice and human rights issues locally and globally. The students apply theoretical insights and methodological techniques to the real world through their coursework, internships, and applied projects.
We now have 40 students from around the globe. They have lived or worked in over 60 countries on such crucial issues as human trafficking, immigrant and refugee rights, education, women’s rights, and indigenous rights. The students are quickly developing networks both within and outside of the program, and they are becoming a force for social justice and change in the Phoenix area and beyond.
The students are also full partners in the building of the program. Indeed, this newsletter is a product of the hard work and creativity of several of our students. Kelly McCarty did a wonderful job as editor, including the conceptualization of both the form and content. I’d like to also acknowledge the wonderful work of our staff writers, Becky Coplan, Stephen Marotta, Sam Naser, Brooke Rawson, and Carrie Wallinger.
We are extremely grateful to our many community partners in Phoenix and beyond, especially those who have provided muchneeded financial support to our students and those who have worked with us on community events or hosted our students as interns.
If you have any questions or comments about the program, please feel free to drop me a line at William.simmons@asu.edu.
Thanks,
Bill Simmons
Taking On "Challenges"
With so much uncertainty in the world today, it is becoming clear that the next generation of thinkers must tackle dynamic issues that are becoming ever more pronounced. Arizona State University recognizes the challenges of the future, and has committed to a system of learning that prepares students to meet these challenges. The Masters of Arts in Social Justice and Human Rights program is at the forefront of this effort.
A new initiative called the “The Challenges Before Us” will launch at ASU’s Homecoming on October 31. This is a broad, universitywide initiative aimed at addressing specific Challenge areas such as human rights, education, sustainability, and economic prosperity. The MASJHR program has developed coursework, on-campus clubs, and partnerships with the community that directly address these challenges. Students in the program play a major, interactive role in the development of these elements. MASJHR students also play leading roles with many organizations, such as the Light of Hope Institute, Amnesty International, and Free the Slaves.
The rapid growth of the MA in Social Justice and Human Rights program is evidence that the Challenges set forth by Arizona State University are aligned with the consciousness of today’s student. The MASJHR program has recently learned that it has been selected by the University as an exemplar program for the Challenges initiative. Dr. Bill Simmons, the MASJHR program director, reacted to the selection: “It is a great honor to be listed as an exemplar program. It shows that our program exemplifies many of the hallmarks of the New American University; interdisciplinary and learner-centered curriculum, globalengagement, and community-embedded courses.”
Details about the Challenges initiative will be upcoming in the next month as the University officially rolls out the program. For more information, visit www.asuchallenges.com.
-Stephen Marotta
Club Updates
Students in the MASJHR are incredibly involved in various clubs, with about an event a week being organized by the students. Find out about it, straight from Amnesty International at ASU’s West Campus President, Becky Coplan.
Student groups are an ideal way to make connections during your time in school. There are two groups that work with the students in the MASJHR program, and those are the campus chapters of Free the Slaves and Amnesty International. Both groups are a valuable resource for students to look to for ideas, but also a way in which students can volunteer.
Amnesty International at ASU’s West Campus is very active. So far this year, we helped sponsor a Banned Book Week event (pictured above) with the Fletcher Library, as well as working on several other events, all while looking into next semester and even next year. For the fall semester, there will be a day-long event with the Light of Hope Institute that is scheduled for November 4. Amnesty International is also working with other groups to help bring their ideas and events to fruition. One example would be that we are working with the Office of Student Engagement on an event about Darfur that is scheduled for mid-November.
Free the Slaves: Arizona State University’s chapter is a new organization to ASU and to the college community as well. This chapter is one of the first three student chapters associated with the U.S. Free the Slaves organization. Last semester, our chapter focused on education and awareness, and those efforts will be continued through this current semester.
Amnesty International and Free the Slaves are both organizations that work to end social injustices world wide. Our school chapters of both organizations are actively involved in events such as promoting awareness through conferences, art, petition drives, and fundraising.
If you want more information or would like to help, please contact Becky Coplan at rcoplan@asu.edu or Carrie Wallinger at caroline.wallinger@asu.edu for more information about the specifics of the events.
- Carrie Wallinger
Student Internships
While students can learn a lot from faculty and books, there is an element of hands-on experience that is unique in providing training for “real world” work in the Social Justice and Human Rights field. Fortunately, a graduate internship (JHR 584) is a three-credit core requirement of the Social Justice and Human Rights (MSJHR) program of study.
A degree, a successful internship is not simply about the credits you earn, but rather relating the internship experience to your ultimate goals when you complete the MASJHR program. According to Tosha Ruggles, Program Coordinator of the MASJHR program, the primary consideration for your internship selection and approval process will be ensuring how it will aid you precisely in doing that.
In addition, an internship gives students the opportunity to connect theoretical concepts introduced in the MASJHR curriculum to a direct work experience. Internships also give students the opportunity to build professional contacts and start them on the right path to a career in a non-profit organization, NGO, educational institution, or government organization.
The internship is typically reserved by students for their second year summer session. All students are required to complete between 150 and 200 hours onsite internship experience, but the program is flexible in accommodating how students arrange their internship. Whether it is due to your full-time or part-time job or family concerns, pursuing an internship on a full-time basis is not for everyone. For those whose personal circumstances only permit committing to a limited schedule, students are allowed to negotiate with their internship and the program to satisfy the needs of all parties.
Students in the program’s past internships have include organizations such as Invisible Children, Techsoup Global, Nijel Incorporated, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, Arizona AFL-CIO, Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking (ALERT), Las Otras Hermanas, and the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center.
For student assistance in internship search strategies, contact Career Services at (602) 543-8124, or visit their office in the University Center Building (UCB), Room 220 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
If your organization has internship opportunities you would like to make available to our students, please contact the SJHR program at 602.543.6241.
- Sam Naser
Course Spotlight: Grant Writing
Social justice isn’t a lucrative business in any economy, let alone the current one. Nonprofits and community organizations often struggle to bring in enough money to sustain their programs and services. The outlook isn’t so bleak, though, for those who know where to look and how to approach a good funding opportunity.
This semester, we are excited to have Dr. Kevin Ruegg teaching our first JHR 506 course in grant writing and fundraising. Dr. Ruegg is currently the executive director of the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education, a local foundation dedicated to providing support to free legal aid agencies, schools and organizations which promote access to justice through free legal services and civic education.
Dr. Ruegg has more than 20 years’ experience working in the nonprofit sector and believes strongly in the value of a grant writing and fundraising course for students of social justice and human rights.
“It is vitally important for anyone who wants to make transformational change and not be burned out to understand how to garner and keep the resources that will be needed to support their efforts,” Ruegg said.
The course is designed to help students prepare successful grant proposals and to learn to navigate the complicated world of foundational support and fundraising.
By the end of the semester, each student will have had the opportunity to develop a grant proposal and to submit it for review, if they wish, to a foundation of their choosing.
In addition to practical knowledge, students also develop professional networking skills in the class. So far this semester Dr. Ruegg has hosted guest lecturers and set up interviews with representatives from her own foundation as well as the Arizona Grantmakers Forum and the Arizona Community Foundation. Many of these speakers have left their contact information in hopes of building working relationships with the students, who are all working on their own initiatives and projects.
SJHR student Layal Rabat said she finds the course useful in that it provides her with professional insight into an area about which she did not previously know much.
“I think the class is really interesting,” Rabat said. “We’ve learned a lot about the inner workings of foundations. It’s been really good to get an inside view. We’ve also had some really excellent speakers come talk to us. They have really diverse perspectives.”
– Carrie Wallinger
Community Partner: Las Otras Hermanas
Las Otras Hermanas (LOH) is a small organization, and it is new on the non-profit scene. However, the organization’s Founder and Executive Director, Charis Elliott, is no novice to the non-profit or advocacy world. Her experience with activism and strong belief that U.S. trade policy needs a change, combined with a short stint working with a Nicaraguan Fair Trade community, gave rise to Las Otras Hermanas.
Started about two years ago, with a seed grant from ASU’s Edson Foundation, Las Otras Hermanas was created to promote alternative economic practices. The organization currently works with a fair trade cooperative of women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico to make fair trade, organic clothing that is sold in the brand new Fair Trade Store located in downtown Phoenix. The organization also engages in many fair trade advocacy measures, including a weekly creative dance and storytelling hour (started by SJHR student Kelly McCarty) to teach children about Fair Trade and other social justice issues.
The organization has become an integral part to student education within the MASJHR program, by providing student internships and volunteer opportunities. The organization is also responsible for the creation of a research trip for the JHR 510 course “Political Evil, Economic Crime, and Alternative Cultural Practices” taught by Dr. Julie Murphy Erfani. Students in this course are spending a weekend in Juárez, visiting LOH’s cooperative, learning about ALDEA (a community organization) and the impact of fair trade on the city, cultivating a knowledge of the femicides, and studying the militarization of the city due to the need to combat drug and other forms of trafficking on the border (all topics the course covers).
Elliott works very hard to make sure that every volunteer and intern can use their experience with Las Otras Hermanas to “focus their energy on something they are interested in learning.” Courtney Anderson, a second-year student, works as a Program Coordinator for the organization. As part of her internship, she acts as a liaison between LOH and the Asaro Artist Collective in Oaxaca to provide designs for the clothing line. She also helps to oversee operations in a Zapotec community producing the organic, traditionally-woven cotton fabrics that are used in the clothing line. Kelly McCarty, a first-year student, serves as the organization’s Development and Outreach intern. Given McCarty’s goal of creating her own nonprofit, Elliott has created a position that engages her in activities related to developing and growing the organization, such as grant writing, creating community events, managing the Fair Trade Store volunteers, and engaging with the women’s cooperative in Juárez. Not only do the interns have a unique opportunity to build up this new organization, but they are given the freedom to run with their own ideas under Elliott’s mentorship.
Volunteers also learn a great deal. Chelsey Dawes, a first-year student, says she has learned much about the Fair Trade Movement, and about “the amazing cooperatives that exist and the interesting social programs they support.” She says the the conscious consumerism that she has learned through her experience is “a philosophy I wish that more people would adopt.”
To learn more about Fair Trade, you can visit LOH’s website at www.lasotrashermanas.org or stop by the Store, located at 424 N. Central Ave. in Downtown Phoenix. It is in the downstairs part of the Civic Space Park building. You will see many of our students there!
- Kelly McCarty
Faculty Spotlight Dr. Patricia Friedrich
Dr. Patricia Friedrich, associate professor in the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, and the chair of the Admissions Committee for the MASJHR program, specializes in the field of linguistics, and has published several articles and a book on the social implications of the English language. In our interview, we discussed the role of linguistics in social justice and human rights, as well as her thoughts on the MASJHR program.
How do you see the study of linguistics contributing to our world today?
It is important that we understand that our own beliefs and value systems permeate everything that we do linguistically. I think if we study how language, values system, cultural expressions and beliefs are inter-related, we would be equipped to do anything from peace talks at the global level, to understanding the rights of minority languages at the local.
Are you currently working with any organizations related to your research?
Currently I am working with The School of Global Non-Killing – an international organization of academics all over the world that tries to think of how different disciplinary orientations contribute to a world without killing.
With a growing interest in local to global justice, how do you think the MASJHR program prepares students to address these issues in the real world?
I think that the program takes a practical approach to issues: combining rigorous research and theoretical foundations with an appreciation and critique of issues that are current in our time. In that, we let students understand that there is no such thing as a small act of empowerment – whether you're changing the life of one person positively, or if you're impacting policy making at the global level, you are contributing one way or another.
- Brooke Rawson
Where Our Students Are From
Ashley Faye
Ashley Faye, who claims Arizona as her home, has a passion for women’s issues. Most recently, Ashley travelled to Calcutta with The Emancipation Network, where she worked with survivors of forced prostitution. She says that traveling as well as “experiencing the world outside of my own perceptions, has attuned me to the needs of others and the injustices they face.” Ashley was married in March and lives in Phoenix with her husband, great dane, and sugar gliders. She also loves yoga, salsa dancing, and taking advantage of new opportunities.
Alonzo Corral
Alonzo says he is from the “good part of South Central Los Angeles,” and he has lived in Orange County and West Phoenix. Alonzo has participated in immigration reform activism for a couple of years. Most importantly, he works at an alternative high school where he serves as a mentor for the students. Alonzo also volunteers at juvenile hall facilities. His passion for human rights and social justice stems from his faith in Jesus Christ. He says that his faith means that “I am one among many trying to live a good life, while helping others help themselves. I believe this is God’s will.”
Semere Kesete
Semere is from Eritrea, in East Africa, and his life’s journey has taken him from his home country to Ethiopia, then to Sweden, and last to the U.S. Before leaving Eritrea, Semere earned an undergraduate degree in law. He came to the program to learn more about social justice and human rights issues in order to understand ways in which he can be of service in his home country. While adapting to a new program in a new country is very difficult, Semere says that the faculty and the students in the program are wonderful and very supportive. This is what helps him to handle these challenges.
Clark Sugata
Clark is from Phoenix, AZ, but his interest in travel has taken him to over 25 countries. While he says he has not always been an activist, his travel opened his eyes to the “inequalities that exist inside of the socio/economic structures I had been indoctrinated to defend and perpetuate.” His previous degree, a B.S. in Economics, has allowed him to understand many issues in social justice and human rights. When not working or at school, he claims to be “the world’s most enthusiastic father,” and says he is lucky to have a family that is so supportive of his career choices.