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 are due by April 20, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CST.
- Submit your applications online.
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"