Opportunities

The Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project, housed at the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas, is seeking one rising 2L or 3L law student from any U.S. law school to serve as a full-time Reproductive Justice Legal Fellow during the summer of 2026. The Project is guided by the principles of the Reproductive Justice movement and its foundational ideas about maternal health, childbirth, and parenting. Working at the intersection of criminal law and reproductive justice, the Project provides resources for lawyers, health care providers, advocacy organizations, and the public; tracks criminal charges, prosecutions, and civil suits in Texas related to pregnancy and abortion; and serves as a transnational hub for academic research and advocacy regarding the criminalization of pregnancy. We seek to deter investigations of and prosecutions for pregnancyrelated offenses and educate on the status of the law to ensure access to legal health care.

Human Rights Scholars work to advance the Center’s human rights programming, promote connections with UT Austin’s interdisciplinary human rights community, and provide support for the Center’s projects. One Human Rights Scholar will be designated as the Sissy Farenthold Scholar in Reproductive Justice.

As promising leaders in reproductive rights and justice, Sissy Farenthold Scholars in Reproductive Justice play a vital role in the daily life and future of the Rapoport Center. Scholars provide research and advocacy support on issues related to reproductive rights, and work closely with the Rapoport Center's programs and planning over the course of the academic year.

We invite UT graduate students from all disciplines whose research pertains to human rights and/or social justice to be part of our graduate student affiliate program.

The Rapoport Center offers fall, spring, and summer internships to undergraduates who are interested in working in the field of human rights and social justice. Interns play an important role at the Rapoport Center, and support various initiatives depending on their backgrounds, interests, and the needs of the Center.

The Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at Texas Law offers the Michael Tigar Human Rights and Global Justice Scholarship and Cohort program. All incoming Texas Law students—including LLM students—are eligible. This opportunity is designed to connect new Texas Law students with the international human rights and global justice community at UT and around the world. If selected, students will receive a one-time scholarship and will join the Michael Tigar Human Rights and Global Justice Cohort.

The Barbara Harlow Endowed Internship in Human Rights and Social Justice honors the life and work of Barbara Harlow (1948-2017), who held the Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor of English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. She was a committed colleague, friend, and mentor to countless students, activists, and intellectuals. As a collaboration between the Rapoport Center and the Bridging Disciplines Programs (BDPs), the internship aims to introduce BDP students to Harlow’s scholarship and activism, and to encourage them to imagine future trajectories for her work.

The Charles Moyer Human Rights Fellowship honors the life and work of Charles Moyer, whose professional career has been devoted to the international protection of human rights, and who was the first Secretary of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Apply by March 29, 2025

The Rapoport Center offers summer funding and placement assistance to Texas Law students interested in doing transnational or international work on issues of human rights or social justice.

The Rapoport Center invites submissions to its undergraduate writing prize contest on human rights and social justice with an emphasis on reproductive justice, environmental justice, and peace. The First Prize winner will receive a $500 scholarship and all finalists’ papers will be considered for publication in the Rapoport Center’s Working Paper Series or Human Rights Commentary.

We invite to you to join our growing network of more than 100 affiliated faculty members. Through our events, projects, and other activities, our affiliated faculty are able to interact with other members of the human rights community. We hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to contribute your unique experience and expertise to the Rapoport Center!

This interdisciplinary writing competition on international human rights and gender awards a $1,250 prize. It honors the work of Audre Rapoport, who advocated for women in the United States and internationally, particularly on issues of reproductive health.

Law students in the Immigration Clinic gain hands-on experience representing vulnerable low-income immigrants from all over the world before the immigration and federal courts and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Immigration Clinic also offers annual undergraduate legal internships for students considering law school and/or interested working in the fields of immigration and human rights.

The Rapoport Center is currently soliciting papers for its Working Paper Series (WPS). We encourage submissions from scholars of all disciplines as well as from activists and advocates.

The Rapoport Center invites UT graduate and professional students to serve on the editorial committee for its Working Paper Series (WPS). The WPS facilitates the editing and publication of papers, works-in-progress, and other writing projects which address human rights and social justice.

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, housed at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, is seeking a graduate student summer fellow to work half-time (20 hours/week) supporting the Center’s work on its thematic priorities, including reproductive justice, environmental and climate justice, peace, and the gendered and racialized dimensions of work and livelihoods.

The Rapoport Center offers grants to support summer fieldwork by UT graduate students on two of the thematic priorities of the Rapoport Center’s Sissy Farenthold Fund for Peace and Social Justice: environmental justice and peace (or their intersection).

The Graduate Affiliates of the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice are excited to invite UT-Austin graduate and professional students to participate in our Spring 2025 interdisciplinary workshop. This event provides a unique opportunity for students to receive substantive feedback on their scholarly work from peers and faculty working in other disciplines. We welcome work-in-progress submissions related to human rights and social justice (see below), including class papers, draft articles, thesis or dissertation chapters, and other scholarly projects aimed at refinement and publication.

The Human Rights Law Society (HRLS) is a student organization at Texas Law that promotes awareness and advocacy of human rights.

As part of our project on studying the use and potential of human rights law and discourse to address economic inequality and its structural causes, the Rapoport Center brought scholars or practitioners critically engaged with these issues to spend 1-2 weeks in residence at UT as a Visiting Professor/Practitioner (VPP). Though the project has ended and we no longer have a formal program, we are still interested in partnering with individuals who are interested and meet this criteria.

Law students and other graduate students in the Human Rights Clinic advocate on behalf of victims of human rights abuses.

The Undergraduate Concentration in Human Rights & Social Justice, offered in collaboration with the Bridging Disciplines Program (BDP), introduces students to the interdisciplinary study and practice of human rights at home and around the world.

Students in the Civil Rights Clinic, which was established through the Rapoport Center, represent low-income clients in a range of civil rights matters relating to abusive law enforcement practices, prisoners’ rights, discrimination in many forms, and freedoms of speech, religion, and association.

This list of human rights organizations, while by no means comprehensive, can be used as a starting point for students to search for opportunities around the world. Organizations where former Rapoport Center Fellows have worked are marked.

Students in the Employment Rights Clinic, which was established through the Rapoport Center, represent low-income workers in cases to recover unpaid wages, and also engage in advocacy projects asserting the rights of workers here and abroad.

UT offers a wide array of undergraduate courses related to human rights.

The University of Texas School of Law offers a number of courses and clinics throughout the year in the area of human rights.

NYU's Center for Human Rights & Global Justice maintains a page for job postings and similar opportunities in the human rights field that may be of interest to current students as well as postgraduates.

This innovative concentration provides students with a robust, critical, and comparative foundation in both human rights and constitutional law. It offers students a comprehensive understanding of contemporary human rights practices, including uses of constitutional law, in both domestic and international settings.

The Rapoport Center sponsors collaborative working groups initiated by our affiliated faculty that research and explore various human rights topics. These groups are comprised of faculty and students from diverse disciplines across campus. We invite you to join a working group and become part of the conversation!

The Rapoport Center facilitates judicial internship placements for Texas Law students with international courts and tribunals, including the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Students may receive funding or academic credit for these internships.