barbara harlow

The Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights & Social Justice

The application cycle for the Spring 2024 Barbara Harlow internship is now open. Please scroll to the bottom of the page for application details. Applications are due at midnight, Tuesday, November 28.

The Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights & 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. 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 (BDP), the internship aims to introduce BDP students to Harlow’s scholarship and activism, and to encourage them to imagine future trajectories for her work.

This internship is chosen to honor Barbara Harlow 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. 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.

Barbara Harlow’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.

We are pleased to honor Harlow's legacy in this way, and we look forward to continuing our support of undergraduate students in her name. Please scroll down for more information about former Harlow interns.

Former Recipients

Fall 2023: Manasi Chande

Spring 2023: Ikram Mohamed

Read Ikram's Human Rights Commentary, titled "The Immigrant-Industrial Complex: An Analysis of Post-9/11 Immigration Enforcement and the Detention of Immigrants in the United States"

Fall 2022: Lesly Chávez-Valencia

Summer 2022: Treasure Ibe

Read Treasure's Human Rights Commentary, titled "TRENDING NOW: #EndSARS: Nigerian and Global Twitter, Protests, and Resistance Literature"

Spring 2022: Stephanie Flores

Fall 2021: Hana Thai

Summer 2021: Angelina Ramirez

Spring 2021: Sanika Nayak

Summer 2020: Jacob Blas

Spring 2020: Bianca (Nieves) Vázquez

Fall 2019: Carol-Armelle Ze-Noah

Spring 2019: Carlos Pinon

Read Carlos' Human Rights Commentary, "State Violence in the Philippines and Art as a Means of Self-Preservation Under Duterte"

View Carlos' BDP poster here to learn more about their experience as a Harlow intern.

Fall 2018: Christina Cho

View Christina's BDP poster here to learn more about their experience as a Harlow intern.

Summer 2018: Mehdia Mrabet

View Mehdia's BDP poster here to learn more about their experience as a Harlow intern.

Spring 2018: Xavier Durham

Read Xavier's Human Rights Commentary, titled "Marielle Franco and the Brazilian Necropolis: Assassination and After Lives"