Human Rights Practice
Bachelor of Arts
Quick Facts
Top 3%
Online Bachelor's
Program in the Nation
- U.S. News & World Report, 2025
TOP 25
Public Flagship
University
- U.S. News & World Report, 2024
Ignite your career in an important and growing field. This program is designed to provide participants with core knowledge, critical perspective and practical skills to advance human rights around the globe.
Through a rigorous, place-based curriculum, you will have extensive opportunities for community engagement, applying course concepts to human rights issues in your own local community. In our one-of-a-kind course in Skills for Human Rights, you will develop specific skills including grant writing, testimonial gathering and documentary production that will help you stand out in a competitive job market.
This program also provides opportunities to engage with distinguished human rights stakeholders through videoconferences, internships, class projects, mentorships and a capstone project. This focus on project-based learning means that you may also be involved in the process of producing white papers, webinars, shadow reports and other forms of scholarly work.
*Residents of some U.S. Territories may not be eligible. Please see our Eligibility & State Authorization page for more information.
The curriculum for this program includes:
Review the history and theory of human rights as well as a range of current issues, and complete a mini-placement within a community organization.
Gain exposure to the pivotal roles that stories play in human rights work, including conveying testimonies, education, and marketing human rights abuses.
Delve into current human rights issues examining the social, political, cultural, and historical causes, as well as social movements and other means for addressing the human rights issue.
Examine historical and current issues in the US through a human rights lens, as well as efforts to improve the human rights conditions in the US.
Integrate theory and practice through experiential opportunities and connect more effectively with your community. Emphasis will be on working with marginalized community members.
Topics may include: grant writing and fundraising, specific statistical techniques or research methods, forensics and human rights, interviewing of marginalized communities, creating documentary media, or the optimum use of social media.
Explore human rights advocacy and enforcement across the globe that has been successful or is underway, with a strong emphasis on the specific work of human rights practitioners in addressing impunity, pressing cases, and developing new legislation to protect human rights.
Focus on how to implement community-based action research projects and work hand-in-hand with faculty and community members to design and implement two community-based action research projects.
Outcomes
Skills
Earning your Bachelor of Arts in Human Rights Practice will build core skills, including:
- Advocacy skills
- Analytical abilities
- Critical perspectives
- Documentary production
- Experience in “real-world” contexts
- Foundational knowledge
- Grant writing
- Testimony gathering
- Writing competencies
Potential Career Paths
Graduates with a BA in Human Rights will be prepared for careers in local, national, and international governmental and non-governmental organizations working on human rights and social justice issues. The program also prepares students for enrollment in law schools or graduate programs that focus on human rights issues, as well as other public and private sector jobs engaged with social issues and vulnerable populations. Career fields include:
