The Barbara Harlow Endowed Internship in Human Rights and Social Justice
The application cycle for the Summer 2024 Barbara Harlow undergraduate internship is now closed. Please check this page for updates regarding the Fall 2024 internship program.
The Barbara Harlow Endowed Internship in Human Rights and Social Justice honors the life and work of Barbara Harlow (1948-2017), who was 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 introduces BDP students to Barbara Harlow’s scholarship and activism and encourages them to imagine future trajectories for her work. While the internship is open to all BDP students, regardless of which certificate they are pursuing, it is meant for students who are working on issues of social justice.
This internship was established shortly after Barbara Harlow's passing in 2017 with donations that she and family members made to the Center to provide undergraduate students with human rights and justice opportunities. We chose the internship to honor Barbara because it was largely through her efforts that the Rapoport Center and the BDP partnered to create the Human Rights & Social Justice BDP certificate in 2009. Harlow chaired the faculty panel for the certificate from its inception until 2017.
Barbara's intellectual praxis crossed continents and encompassed diverse agendas: resistance, translation, political engagement and solidarity, human rights, and pedagogy. She contributed greatly to the University of Texas at Austin, not only through the English department, the Rapoport Center, and the BDP, but through several area studies programs and centers, including African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Studies. To learn more about her life and work, please visit the Rapoport Center's tribute page and the website for our 2017 conference, Barbara Harlow: The Sequel.
In 2024, a number of Barbara's former students, colleagues, and friends have begun to raise funds to endow the internship to ensure its continuation in perpetuity. If you would like to contribute or to learn more about former Harlow interns, please visit the endowment page.