Opportunities

The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College is now accepting applications for its M.A. in Human Rights and the Arts program.

The MA Program in Human Rights & the Arts offers a two-year graduate-level interdisciplinary curricular experience that takes stock of the growing encounter between human rights and the arts as fields of both academic knowledge and professional work. In addition to flexible and rigorous graduate-level coursework, students are expected to successfully present a research-based academic thesis or artistic performance/film/installation as their capstone project. Our current students join us from around the world and represent a variety of academic backgrounds and professional aspirations.

The MA program is housed in the OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts (CHRA), at Bard College in the New York Hudson Valley (occupied homelands of the Munsee and Muhheaconneok people), which offers a variety of co-curricular and professional development activities as well as research and travel grant opportunities. Need-based financial aid is available to all students (including those from outside the United States) in select amounts to help defray the cost of attendance.

The application deadline is January 5, 2024. There is no application fee, and no standardized test requirement. Ample need-based financial aid is available.

The following virtual information sessions are open to the public for prospective applicants:

• Monday Nov. 6 at  9:00am NYC Time (3pm Vienna / 6pm Dhaka)
• Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 9:00am NYC Time (3pm Vienna / 6pm Dhaka)
• Thursday, Nov. 16 at 4:00pm NYC Time (10pm Vienna / 1am Dhaka)

Please RSVP to [email protected] for the info sessions Zoom link, indicating your full name, current academic affiliation (if any), and which session you are planning to attend.

Application Deadline: 5 January 2024

Email Inquiries: [email protected]

Learn more about how to apply here. 

Are you interested in the aesthetics of policing? Does the phrase provoke, perplex, disturb, or confuse you? Or does it correspond exactly to the research you are doing?  Either way, OSUN faculty members and graduate students are invited to participate in a two-day workshop on February 3-4, 2023, at the Center for Human Rights & the Arts, Bard College that seeks to examine critically the aesthetic dimensions of policing. Not to celebrate or denounce, and certainly not to recuperate policing as a topic for art history or philosophy, but to develop an analytic language that goes beyond documentation. Led by scholars, activists, and artists, the workshop’s activities will range from interactive lectures to movement exercises to screenings. Interdisciplinary and experimental, the event will focus on interventions that move beyond documentary strategies of representing policing, including its violence and the political struggles against it. Participants are invited to respond to these interventions and begin to construct new frameworks for analyzing the practice of policing and its representation.

Interested OSUN colleagues should e-mail by December 7th with a three-sentence statement of interest and a reference to one text, film, or artwork that could be included in a shared bibliography. Successful applicants will be notified by December 19th. The subject of the email should be “Beyond Documentation 2023.” Expenses for travel, lodging, and meals will be supported by the OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts.

The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts (CHRA) invites applications for two one-year research and teaching fellowships in human rights and the arts. Scholars and/or artists with teaching experience and a research project are eligible to apply. The 2023–2024 fellowships cover a period of one year, i.e. two academic semesters, from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. The positions are based at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. The fellowships include a full-time salary, health benefits, and a research budget. Fellows are expected to participate in the academic life of Bard and OSUN, pursue their own research, and contribute to the CHRA’s public programs. The annual salary for this position is $65,000.

The Fellows will pursue their own research or creative practice within the interdisciplinary and critical framework of the Center, and contribute to the curriculum of the Center’s M.A. Program in Human Rights and the Arts by teaching one course each semester. The M.A. program, which launched in the 2021–22 academic year, explores the encounter between human rights and the arts as fields of academic knowledge, professional work, and artistic practice, while also offering students opportunities to explore ways of confronting the conceptual and practical perplexities of that encounter. The goal of the fellowship program is to support outstanding thinkers and practitioners and thus to strengthen research, creation, and teaching at the intersection of human rights and the arts. The Center will award one Fellowship to a practitioner (artistic or activist/advocate), and one to a researcher or scholar, each year. We recognize that these categories are often blurry and encourage applications from those who cannot in advance specify to which group they belong.
Compensation and Benefits

Fellows will receive a full-time salary and health insurance. Fellows will also be provided with office space, a computer, and library access.

Expectations
During the 2023–2024 academic year, the Fellows will focus their research or practice on the intersection for human rights and the arts, and work as part of a team of faculty and students in the Center. In addition, the Fellows are expected to:

• Deliver a public talk during their appointment year on a relevant topic and based on their work.
• Design and teach one graduate course each semester in the M.A. Program in Human Rights & the Arts, with the understanding that such courses will be open to the broader Bard College and OSUN communities.
• Actively participate in the public life of the OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts, including taking part in or organizing public events, productions or exhibitions, and workshops or conferences.
• Be in residence at Bard College or the vicinity, or demonstrate to the program’s satisfaction the ability to provide substantial campus presence to fulfill responsibilities relating to in-person participation (e.g., teaching, office hours, attendance at events, etc.).

Please note that Fellows may not hold any other fellowships or visiting positions concurrently, and that the appointments cannot be deferred to a later term.

Qualifications
Applicants should hold a terminal degree or equivalent training and professional accomplishment in their field, have experience teaching or lecturing at the college level, and possess a track record of successful research and scholarship, creative practice, or civic engagement and advocacy.

Application Instructions
Candidates should apply online by submitting the following documents to Interfolio at: http://apply.interfolio.com/117274

• A cover letter summarizing your current research and proposed work during the appointment period. The statement should not exceed 1,500 words.
• Curriculum vitae and list of publications, performances, exhibits, or projects.
• Teaching statement – not in excess of 500 words and including a reflection on diversity, inclusion, and equality in the context of this Fellowship – and brief descriptions of two proposed courses.
• Sample of recent scholarly, artistic, or professional work.
• Contact information for three professional references (including email address and phone number).

Deadline
All materials must be received by Thursday, January 5, 2023, 11:59 p.m. EST.
The position begins on July 1, and Fellows are expected to be in residence at the College during the teaching semesters.
Questions about the fellowship or about the application process should be sent to [email protected]

The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College is now accepting applications for its M.A. in Human Rights and the Arts program.

The MA Program in Human Rights & the Arts offers a two-year graduate-level interdisciplinary curricular experience that takes stock of the growing encounter between human rights and the arts as fields of both academic knowledge and professional work. In addition to flexible and rigorous graduate-level coursework, students are expected to successfully present a research-based academic thesis or artistic performance/film/installation as their capstone project. Our current students join us from around the world and represent a variety of academic backgrounds and professional aspirations.

The MA program is housed in the OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts (CHRA), at Bard College in the New York Hudson Valley (occupied homelands of the Munsee and Muhheaconneok people), which offers a variety of co-curricular and professional development activities as well as research and travel grant opportunities. Need-based financial aid is available to all students (including those from outside the United States) in select amounts to help defray the cost of attendance.

The application deadline is January 6, 2023. There is no application fee, and no standardized test requirement. Ample need-based financial aid is available.

The following virtual information sessions are open to the public for prospective applicants:
● Tuesday Nov. 8 at 9:00am NYC Time (3pm Vienna / 8pm Dhaka)
● Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 9:00am NYC Time (3pm Vienna / 8pm Dhaka)
● Thursday, Nov. 17 at 4:00pm NYC Time (10pm Vienna / 3am Dhaka)
Please RSVP to [email protected] for the info sessions Zoom link, indicating your full name, current academic affiliation (if any), and which session you are planning to attend.

Application Deadline: 6 January 2023
Email Inquiries: [email protected]
Learn more about how to apply here. 

The OSUN Human Rights & the Arts Center at Bard College invites applications for micro-grants to students pursuing campus- and community-based initiatives in human rights and the arts. The goal of this grant program is to support students at OSUN institutions who seek to create or extend projects in human rights and social justice, particularly those with an artistic dimension, that are based in the institution or the community (or beyond). 

Eligibility

• Any currently-enrolled undergraduate or graduate student in any of the partner institutions of the Open Society University Network (OSUN) are eligible to apply.
• Projects that are incorporated into class curriculum or involve all of the students in a particular class are eligible for support.  
• Projects that strengthen connections across OSUN institutions are encouraged but not required.

Grants Details

• Applicants will be notified of selection committee decisions by December 15, 2021.
• Successful applicants for the Spring-Summer 2022 cycle will receive up to a $1,000 stipend in support. These funds can be used to cover relevant purchases and other expenses in pursuit of a student-led initiative. All expenses must be pre-approved through the application process (or subsequently amended) and executed between January 30 and August 30, 2022.
• Awards to projects with high material expenses will be issued as a form of advanced payment to cover the project expenses.  Awards to projects with little or no material expenses will be issued as a stipend.  Please note that stipends may be considered taxable income and will be the award recipient’s responsibility to declare appropriately.
• All grant recipients will be required to write a brief grant report and the end of their project, which will include a narrative description of the project outcomes and a final expenditures report.

Application Procedure
Eligible students interested in applying should submit the following materials via this 2022 CHRA Student Led Initiative Microgrant Application portal no later than 11:59pm EST on November 19, 2021. Please include your full name, program/department and institutional affiliation, the administrative point-person at your institutions, faculty advisor, and project title in the header of uploaded material. 

1. Initiative Summary (250-word limit): This abstract should explain the objective, outputs, and significance of your initiative.
2. Proposal Narrative (250-word limit): This narrative should detail the specific components of your initiative that you are applying to receive funding for and what the expected outputs (if any) are.
3. Budget Expenses and Justifications (1-page limit): Please divide this budget by location of expenses, and type of activity therein (e.g., airfare, lodging, meals, access fees, etc.).

Expectations

• Understand that award payment can take up to six weeks after the award letter is issued to be fully processed. The project activities should be proposed with that timeline in mind.
• Adhere to the proposed budget submitted with their grant application.
• Adhere to OSUN policies related to research-related purchases and other expenses.
• Submit an interim report narrative and expenditures sheet via the requisite google form by May 1, 2022, accounting for the use of the grant award and summarizing the outputs that may have resulted.
• Submit a final report narrative and expenditures sheet via the requisite google form by August 30, 2022, accounting for the use of the grant award and summarizing the outputs that may have resulted.

The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts invites applications for two one-year research and teaching fellowships in human rights and the arts. The positions are open to individuals working in a variety of fields where human rights and the arts intersect, including artists, curators, researchers, scholars, writers, filmmakers, advocates and activists.

The fellowships cover a period of one year, i.e. two academic semesters, from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023, and are supported by a full-time salary and health benefits. The positions are based at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

The Fellows will pursue their own research or creative practice within the interdisciplinary and critical framework of the Center, and contribute to the curriculum of the Center’s M.A. Program in Human Rights and the Arts by teaching one course each semester. The M.A. program, which admitted its first cohort in 2021–22, explores the encounter between human rights and the arts as fields of academic knowledge, professional work, and artistic practice, while also offering students opportunities to explore ways of confronting the conceptual and practical perplexities of that encounter. The goal of the fellowship program is to support outstanding thinkers and practitioners and thus to strengthen research, creation, and teaching at the intersection of human rights and the arts.

The Center will award one Fellowship to a practitioner (artistic or activist/advocate), and one to a researcher or scholar, each year.  We recognize that these categories are often blurry and encourage applications from those who cannot in advance specify to which group they belong.

Compensation and Benefits
Fellows will receive a full-time salary and health insurance. Fellows will also be provided with office space, a computer, and library access.

Expectations
During the 2022–2023 academic year, the Fellows will focus their research or practice on the intersection for human rights and the arts, and work as part of a team of faculty and students in the Center.

In addition, the Fellows are expected to:

• Deliver a public talk during their appointment year on a relevant topic and based on their work.
• Design and teach one graduate course each semester in the M.A. Program in Human Rights & the Arts, with the understanding that such courses will be open to the broader Bard College and OSUN communities.
• Actively participate in the public life of the OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts, including taking part in or organizing public events, productions or exhibitions, and workshops or conferences.
• Be in residence at Bard College or the vicinity, or demonstrate to the program’s satisfaction the ability to provide substantial campus presence to fulfill responsibilities relating to in-person participation (e.g., teaching, office hours, attendance at events, etc.).

Please note that Fellows may not hold any other fellowships or visiting positions concurrently, and that the appointments cannot be deferred to a later term.

Qualifications
Applicants should hold a terminal degree or equivalent training and professional accomplishment in their field, have experience teaching or lecturing at the college level, and possess a track record of successful research and scholarship, creative practice, or civic engagement and advocacy.

To Apply:
Candidates should apply online via Interfolio and submit the following documents:

• Cover letter summarizing your current research and proposed work during the appointment period. The statement should not exceed 1,500 words.
• Curriculum vitae and list of publications, performances, exhibits, or projects.
• Teaching statement — not in excess of 500 words and including a reflection on diversity, inclusion, and equality in the context of this Fellowship — and brief descriptions of two proposed courses.
• Sample of recent scholarly, artistic, or professional work.
• Contact information for three references.

DEADLINE: 
All materials must be received by Monday, January 10, 2022, 11:59 p.m. EST.  The position begins on July 1, and Fellows are expected to be in residence at the College during the teaching semesters.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Bard College is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applications from those who contribute to our diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, mental, or physical disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, familial status, veteran status, or genetic information.

Bard is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for all individuals in employment practices, services, programs, and activities.

The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts invites applications for faculty research grants at the intersection of human rights and the arts. The Center seeks to confront the current practical and conceptual challenges of human rights discourse by stimulating new ways of thinking, developing new strategies of activism and engagement, incubating new relationships between activists, scholars and artists, and working seriously and meaningfully at a global scale. The goal of the grants is to support OSUN faculty research—including scholarly research, investigation/documentation, or research-based art practices—and to strengthen the connections between OSUN member faculty.

Eligibility
Any faculty member with an appointment to teach during the 2021-2022 academic year in any of the partner institutions of the Open Society University Network (OSUN) is eligible to apply.

Grants Details
Faculty members can apply to one or both of two categories, but will only be awarded funding for one: Research Stipend Grant or Course Release Grant.

Research Stipend Grant:
Successful applicants for the Research Stipend award will receive up to $8,000 in research support. These funds can be used to cover relevant book and equipment purchases, conference participation, research travel, research assistants, translators, transcriptions, scanning and copying, permissions, artistic collaborators, subscriptions, entry fees and other admissions, and costs associated with other relevant materials, services, and arrangements necessary for conducting the proposed research. All expenses must be pre-approved through the application process (or subsequently amended) and executed before August 30, 2022. Please note that since the award payment is issued as a stipend rather than as advanced payment for research expenses, it may be considered taxable income and will be the award recipient’s responsibility to declare appropriately.

Course Release Grant:
The Course Release Grant is intended to support a faculty member’s research by awarding their institution funds to cover the faculty’s time spent researching. In order to be eligible for this award, the applicant must submit a letter of support from the relevant dean, department chair, or other academic officer(s) at the applicant’s institution. The time frame for the course release must be approved by the faculty’s institution as well.

All applicants will be notified of selection committee decisions by December 1, 2021 (now December 14, 2021 due to deadline extension).
Questions about the grant or about the application process should be sent to [email protected]

Application Procedure
Eligible faculty interested in applying should submit the following materials via this 2022 CHRA Faculty Research Application portal no later than 11:59pm EST on November 19, 2021. Please include your full name, program/department and institutional affiliation, and project title in the header of uploaded material.
Expectations

• Understand that award payment can take up to six weeks after the award letter is issued to be fully processed. The project activities should be proposed with that timeline in mind.
• Adhere to the proposed budget submitted with their grant application.
• Adhere to OSUN policies related to research-related purchases and other expenses.
• Submit an interim report narrative and expenditures sheet via the requisite google form by May 1, 2022, accounting for the use of the grant award and summarizing the findings and any exhibit, performance, presentation, and/or publication outputs that may have resulted.
• Submit a final report narrative and expenditures sheet via the requisite google form by August 30, 2022, accounting for the use of the grant award and summarizing the findings and any exhibit, performance, presentation, and/or publication outputs that may have resulted.
• Commit to presenting research findings at grantees’ virtual panel during the 2022-23 academic year.

The OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts announces today the launch of a pioneering M.A. program in Human Rights and the Arts, and looks forward to welcoming its inaugural class in Fall 2021.

Designed by the Center’s core faculty team of Tania El Khoury, Thomas Keenan, Gideon Lester, and Ziad Abu-Rish, the interdisciplinary program will bring together scholars, artists, and activists from around the world to explore the productive and contentious relation between the arts and struggles for truth and justice. The program expands the curricular and extra-curricular elements of the OSUN Center, directed by El Khoury.

“Academic institutions have lagged behind the on-the-ground encounter between human rights advocacy and artistic practices,” said El Khoury. “This program builds on Bard’s historical strength in the study of both human rights and the arts, while creating a new framework to think about, practice, and shape their intersections.”

The M.A. program offers students an advanced interdisciplinary curriculum that takes stock of the growing encounter between human rights and the arts, as fields of both academic knowledge and professional work. Students in the program will pursue a core of courses in critical human rights theory and practice, as well as in the political potential of various art forms, supplemented with electives across the social sciences, humanities, and arts.

“The ideal incoming class will be a combination of artists, activists, and researchers,” added Abu-Rish, director of the M.A. program. “We look forward to the explosion of ideas, proposals, and work that will emerge from this encounter, and to the effects that this sort of incubator will have on practices in both advocacy and the arts.”

The Center has set a May 1 priority application deadline and a June 15 final deadline. Ample need-based financial aid is available to cover tuition and other expenses.

The following information sessions will be open to the public and prospective applicants (register by emailing [email protected] with your full name and intended session to receive a Zoom link).

• Tuesday, April 6, at 8:30am NYC Time (2:30pm Vienna / 6:30pm Dhaka)
• Wednesday, April 7, at 4:00pm NYC Time (10pm Vienna / 2:00am Dhaka)
• Monday, April 12, at 8:00am NYC Time (2:00pm Vienna / 6:00pm Dhaka)
• Thursday, April 15, at 4:00pm NYC Time (10pm Vienna / 2:00am Dhaka)
• Friday, April 16, at 4:00pm NYC Time (10pm Vienna / 2:00am Dhaka)
• Monday, April 19, at 8:00am NYC Time (2:00pm Vienna / 6:00pm Dhaka)

Prospective applicants unable to register for any of the above sessions are encouraged to contact the program for additional possible sessions or a one-on-one meeting with the MA program director. More information about the MA program is available on the Center’s website (chra.bard.edu), and prospective students are encouraged to email the M.A. program directly at [email protected].
The MA program and the Center for Human Rights and the Arts are supported by the recently-founded Open Society University Network (OSUN), a global network of educational institutions.

The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts invites applications for two one-year research and teaching fellowships in human rights and the arts. The positions are open to individuals working in a variety of fields where human rights and the arts intersect, including artists, curators, researchers, scholars, writers, filmmakers, advocates and activists.

The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts invites applications for research support from faculty pursuing projects at the intersection of human rights and the arts. The goal of the grants is to support OSUN faculty research—including scholarly research, investigation/documentation, and research-based art practices—and to strengthen the connections between colleagues at different OSUN institutions.

The OSUN Human Rights & the Arts Center invites applications for micro-grants to students pursuing campus- and community-based initiatives in human rights and the arts. The goal of this grant program is to support students at OSUN institutions who seek to create or extend projects in human rights and social justice, particularly those with an artistic dimension, that are based in the institution, the community, or beyond.