The Pozen Center’s annual Human Rights BA Thesis Award recognizes excellence in writing about human rights, awarding three cash prizes of $500 each to current University of Chicago College students who are human rights majors or minors.
Criteria
- Submissions must come from human rights majors or human rights minors.
- Any piece of writing used for a BA Thesis is eligible. The thesis can be written for any major, so long as it takes up a human rights subject.
- Submissions will be judged by the content and clarity of the writing.
Eligibility
Only human rights majors and minors at the University of Chicago are eligible.
How to Apply
Applications will re-open in Spring 2026.
Learn More
For more information contact Deputy Director Adam Avrushin.
Award Recipients
2025
- Safia Singer-Pomerantz (Human Rights)
"Involuntary Sterilization in Garifuna Women from Latin America and ‘Gendered Asylum’ in the United States" - Nitya Upadrasta (Public Policy and Business Economics, Minor: Human Rights)
"Barriers Built In: Accessing Survivor Justice and Care as a Woman with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities" - Delia Acuna (Global Studies and Human Rights)
"Human Rights, A Double-Edged Sword: The Paradox of Human Rights as an Imperial and Emancipatory Political Tool"
2024
- Emma Kreisler
"A Person's a Person, No Matter How Small: Race, Religion, and Nazi Children's Literature" - Natalie Manley
"From Inside to Insiders: The Unique Social and Human Capital Formerly Incarcerated People in Chicago Bring to, and Barriers They Face in, Criminal Legal System-Related Fields" - Adowa Nkansah
"The Politics of Afromexicanidad: Diaspora and the (re)Construction of Blackness in Mexico"