Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice

Congratulations to Valentina Biondini, our 2025 winner of the Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on Gender and Human Rights!

Read her winning paper, "In the Name of Gender-Based Violence: US Border Externalization in the South American Migration and Border Regime" here: https://law.utexas.edu/humanrights/projects/in-the-name-of-gender-based-violence-us-border-externalization-in-the-south-american-migration-and-border-regime/

Apply now for our Summer Undergraduate Communications Internship.

Build experience in communications, design, and outreach while working on human rights and social justice projects.

Apply by May 14 at 12 PM. Learn more and apply here: https://law.utexas.edu/humanrights/opportunities/undergraduate-communications-internship/

Thank you to everyone who supported the Rapoport Center and the Sissy Farenthold Fund during 40 for Forty.

Because of your support, UT students will continue to access the funding, mentorship, and opportunities they need to engage in human rights and social justice work.

We’re halfway through 40 for Forty.

There’s still time to support UT students pursuing internships, fellowships, and fieldwork in human rights and social justice.

Make your gift before 10 p.m.: tinyurl.com/2fenjwwc

UT’s 40 for Forty starts now.

Support career-defining opportunities for UT students through the Rapoport Center and the Sissy Farenthold Fund.

Your gift supports internships, fellowships, and fieldwork in human rights and social justice.

Give today: tinyurl.com/2fenjwwc

The campaign runs from 6 a.m. Wednesday, April 29, to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 30.

Celebrate Earth Day with us 🌎

Join us for an event featuring activist, author, and 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Diane Wilson.

We’ll explore how law, advocacy, and direct action can be used to fight pollution and protect people and the planet, grounded in this year’s Earth Day theme: “Our Power, Our Planet.”

RSVP here: tinyurl.com/3n8ju6c3

Join us next Tuesday for a conversation and Q&A with Professor Zinaida Miller on the role of international law in conflicts from Iran to Venezuela. We hope to see you there!

RSVP here: tinyurl.com/bp637xw8

Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for the 10th annual Sissy Farenthold Lecture, featuring Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, best known for "The Sympathizer."

In his powerful talk, “On Undefeated Despair: Writing Inside Empire,” Nguyen reflected on his experience as a refugee and the role of storytelling in shaping—and challenging—systems of power. Drawing on voices like James Baldwin, Marguerite Duras, and Emile Habibi, he offered “undefeated despair” as a lens for understanding the limits and necessity of writing amid ongoing violence and oppression.

The conversation continued with Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, who connected these ideas to histories of war, migration, and empire from Vietnam to today.

Watch the full lecture here: tinyurl.com/uczccvd8
Check out photos from the event: tinyurl.com/yx23e847

On March 31, join us for a report-back event featuring Ph.D. students sharing insights from their environmental justice fieldwork supported by the Rapoport Center.

Victor Angbah will present “Disease Ecology in the Pra River Basin of Ghana.”

Trent Wintermeier will present “Extractive Partnerships: Reciprocity and Resistance Along the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline.”

Hear about their research and learn more about how to apply for these fieldwork grants. RSVP here: tinyurl.com/4mnnbfud

We are honored to welcome Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen to present the 10th annual Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice, and Human Rights next week. Presented in partnership with the Rothko Chapel, this year’s lecture will feature Nguyen’s talk, “On Undefeated Despair: Writing Inside Empire.”

Nguyen is University Professor and the Aerol Arnold Chair of English at the University of Southern California, and the author of numerous celebrated works, including "The Sympathizer," which received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as "The Refugees," "A Man of Two Faces," and "To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other."

RSVP here: tinyurl.com/4t9bcf7a