The OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts is pleased to announce that applications are now open for our next cohort in the MA in Human Rights & the Arts program.
The MA Program in Human Rights & the Arts offers a two-year graduate-level interdisciplinary curricular experience that takes stock of the growing encounter between human rights and the arts as fields of both academic knowledge and professional work. The program aims to stimulate new ways of thinking; develop new strategies for research, practice, and engagement; and incubate new relationships between activists, scholars, and artists. The curriculum is grounded in flexible and rigorous graduate-level coursework, involving theory, case studies, and studio classes. In addition, all students are expected to successfully present a research-based academic thesis or artistic performance/film/installation as their capstone project.
The MA program is housed in the OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts (CHRA), at Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley (occupied homelands of the Munsee and Muhheaconneok people). CHRA offers a variety of annual co-curricular and professional development activities that incorporate the MA students: a talk series, digital commissions, collaborations with activist groups, workshops, and a biennial festival that takes place at Bard College and across the OSUN network. Featured artists and activists have included Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Kenyon Adams, Cooking Sections, Mohammed El-Kurd, Forensic Architecture, Coco Fusco, Suzanne Kite, Zayaan Khan, Faustin Linyekula, Layli Long Soldier, Ernesto Pujol, Benjii Rha, Vivien Sansour, Hamed Sinno, Juliana Steiner, Jordan Weber, and Eyal Weizman, among others.
The MA program features an internationally distinguished team of faculty and staff, including scholars, researchers, artists, curators, and/or activists: Tania El Khoury, Thomas Keenan, Gideon Lester, Polina Malikin, Michelle Song, Adrienne Truscott, and Ziad Abu-Rish. In addition, CHRA affiliate faculty have included Masha Gessen, Ivan L. Munuera, Michelle K. Murray, Juan Orrentia, Dina Ramadan, Peter Rosenblum, and Maria R. Sonevytsky, among others. Annual residential fellowships have been held by filmmaker Sabine El Chamma, researcher Nadine Fattaleh, art historian Lara Fresco Madra, and anthropologist Oscar Pedraza Vargas, among others.
CHRA and its MA program offer need-based financial aid to all students (including those from outside the United States) in select amounts to help defray the cost of attendance (including tuition, fees, health insurance, and living expenses). Of the first two MA cohorts, 100 percent of the students received need-based financial aid ranging from 45 percent to 95 percent of the total cost of attendance. CHRA also offers its graduate students annual allowances to support course-specific and thesis-specific research and production as well as more general research and travel grant opportunities. In addition, MA students benefit from a range of grants, workshops, and other financial support and professional development opportunities open to them and all other students at member institutions of the Open Society University Network (OSUN).
Individuals interested in the MA Program must apply online by the January 6, 2023 deadline. There is no application fee and no standardized test scores associated with applying. Ample need-based financial aid is available to cover tuition and other costs of attendance.
There will be two upcoming virtual information sessions open to the public:
Tuesday, November 15 at 9am NYC Time (3pm Vienna / 8pm Dhaka)
Thursday, November 17 at 4pm NYC Time (10pm Vienna / 3am Dhaka)
Please RSVP to hra@bard.edu for the Zoom link, indicating your full name, current affiliation (if any), and which session you are planning to attend.
For more information about the program, the application process, or applying for financial aid, please visit our website. Interested students are also encouraged to contact the MA Program at CHRA to further discuss the program by calling T +1 845 758 7680 or sending an email to hra@bard.edu.
