The Institute for Human Rights is affiliated with a comprehensive education portfolio in human rights, including a major, minor, and graduate program in human rights. Through our Human Rights Lab, we offer graduate assistantships and undergraduate internships.
Human Rights Degree Programs
Undergraduate
The B.A. in Human Rights (HRT) is an interdisciplinary program that prepares students with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to engage in fields that directly promote human rights, especially in the public and non-profit sectors. As one of few human rights majors across the U.S. and the only one in the Deep South, it offers an opportunity for students to engage with the rich human rights and civil rights history of Birmingham, Alabama; the U.S.; and the world more broadly. The minor in human rights is a valuable addition to almost any major as it offers insights in a rights-based interpretation of what affects our lives as humans.
Graduate
The Master of Arts (MA) in the Anthropology of Peace and Human Rights program applies an anthropological focus on peace as behavioral process at multiple levels including at the level of individuals, families, groups, communities, cultures, and nations. Students critically analyze how factors such as ecological sustainability, human security, democracy, justice, non-violence, conflict resolution, and human rights are interconnected constructs related to the unifying construct of peace.