Human Rights Lab

The Human Rights Lab actively engages University of Chicago students and community members in solutions to human rights problems, advancing new questions around human rights theory and practice through the lens of deep research, experiential learning, and critical community-building. In its first five years, under the leadership of Director of Human Rights Practice Alice Kim, the Lab is addressing the intersecting human rights crises of racialized policing and mass incarceration in the United States.

Check out upcoming Human Rights Lab events!

Curricular Offerings

The Lab offers two seminar courses each academic year and houses the Human Rights Lab BA Fellowship, an opportunity for rising fourth-year students whose BA theses examine human rights issues related to prisons, policing, and the criminal legal system. 
 

Mass Incarceration Working Group

The Mass Incarceration Working Group explores how the University of Chicago can address social injustices caused by mass incarceration; how we might create pathways to higher education for system-impacted individuals and communities; and how the campus community can foster a sense of belonging and full participation for students, staff, and faculty who may have a history of incarceration, as well as those affected by the incarceration of family members.
 

Community-Building Initiatives

From mutual aid projects to multidisciplinary community residencies, the Lab works on a number of initiatives to build community solidarity, more effectively leverage resources, and strengthen a network of like-minded organizations and individuals to enact change.
 

Institute on Memory and Human Rights

The Institute on Memory and Human Rights explores the role of memorials in reckoning with racial inequality and state violence, and how individual and collective memory shapes public narratives of past and present injustices.
 

Past Lab Projects

Read more about past Lab projects and initiatives.

Stay in Touch!

Subscribe to stay up to date on what’s new in the Human Rights Lab. We send occasional emails with upcoming events, opportunities, and links to what we’re reading.

Support

We invite you to support the Lab's work advancing Human Rights practice by donating via our secure payment page.