Human Rights in Transit (HRIT) is a Humanities & Arts discovery theme pilot project focused on the complex and multi-disciplinary questions raised by the fact that human rights, the human, and human environments are in transit. A knowledge hub is a metaphorical location as well as a method of transmission driven by collaboration, research, teaching and community relationships. In addition to the idea of human rights being in transit, the concept of “in transit” refers to the circulation of knowledge/experiences between disciplines and between the OSU campus, local community, and wider contexts.
HUB Activities:
- Teaching Cluster: each semester a set of courses with related but distinct content will be linked together through innovative practices of cross-pollination.
- Campus & Community Dialogues: over the next two years of the project we will host several dialogues within and between the university and local community on critical questions relating to human rights, including refugee resettlement, human trafficking, and prison reform.
- Human Rights “field school” — summer trip to NYC for film festival, trip to human rights archive, visits to key human rights locations, and conversations with human rights workers.
- Human Rights in Transit podcast featuring the research and activism of students, faculty, and invited speakers.
Pilot Project Team:
Dr. Simone Drake, Associate Professor, Department of African American and African Studies
Dr. Wendy Hesford, Professor, Department of English
Dr. Amy Shuman, Professor, Department of English
Dr. Maurice Stevens, Professor, Department of Comparative Studies
Dr. Jennifer Suchland, Associate Professor, Department of Slavic and East European Languages & Cultures and Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies