Published on 2026-04-20 by Riley Stern
Universities and higher education institutions are where students often learn, for the first time, to think for themselves, to come up with their own ideas, to question the status quo, and critically look at the world around them. With this, they often find themselves situated in the center of civil and political movements.
In 2025, authors Paul Gready, professor at the University of York and director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights, and Emma Jackson, research associate at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, published an article, “Universities unbound: Universities as sites of human rights activism and protection in an era of democratic crisis.” Here, they discussed the four different roles universities can take on in human rights advocacy: instigators, incubators, collaborators, and protectors.
Universities can instigate change. They are places where dissent is nurtured and institutional autonomy, the agency for universities to internally manage their affairs without undue influence, is defended. Universities have long-standing reputations as being in the heart of protest movements. Well known examples include UC Berkeley's Free Speech Movement and anti-Vietnam war protests across the 1960s and 70s. At the University of Minnesota, the Morrill Hall takeover in 1963 was the catalyst for the creation of the school’s African-American Studies department. Student activists are temporary residents at universities, allowing their dissent and instigation to be transitory. As students come and go, the role and focus of instigator is constantly redefined.
As incubators, universities are breeding grounds for ideas and movements. In times of national or global conflict, they can reproduce the divides seen within a society, or alternatively, model a more harmonious future. They act as a safety net for students to debate, dissect, and experiment with ideas about human rights challenges, and act upon solutions. At the University of Minnesota, the Human Rights Program hosts a bimonthly student-led initiative, Brewing Justice Coffee Hours, where students gather at a local coffee shop to discuss ways to make human rights change inside and outside of the classroom. At these coffee hours, incubation is fostered through student dialogue and debate with one another.
A third role for universities is as collaborator– using their internal capacity and capital to advance the agendas of external human rights stakeholders. For example, partnering with local human rights organizations to create and promote relevant analysis and advocacy or specific university-run legal aid clinics. Collaborations must be mutually beneficial in educating students and addressing direct external needs. The University of Minnesota pioneered the Minnesota Model for Human Rights, an initiative to foster faculty-student-practitioner partnerships that call attention to current human rights challenges and work to create timely solutions.
A final role universities have is as protector, both of human rights defenders and scholars at risk, but also of the sanctity of human rights scholarship. These forms of protection of both people and values are interdependent. Human rights defenders around the globe are often in danger and universities may step in within temporary relocation measures. The University of Minnesota is a member of the New University in Exile Consortium, a collective of higher education institutions who are committed to protecting threatened scholars.
The University of Minnesota Human Rights Collaboratory
In the summer of 2025, I worked to help develop and launch a human rights-research and advocacy focused lab, the Human Rights Collaboratory (the Rights Collaboratory for short), and initiative to equip the next generation of researchers and practitioners with the skills and resilience needed to tackle 21st century human rights challenges. In our inaugural year, we are focused on creating informational and advocacy materials to help our fellow students understand rights and be at the center of human rights change.
As the senior research assistant and founding member of the collaboratory, and as an undergraduate student, I believe we must promote a hope-based vision for the future of human rights. A vision that treats the rights of all as living commitments in our everydays. A hope-based vision does not ignore the world’s injustice, but rather, moves forward with conviction that another way is possible.
As a lab housed within the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program, I believe the roles of instigator, incubator, collaborator and protector are essential to prioritize throughout our work.
To fulfill the role of instigator, the resources we are creating will address, analyze, and explain current local and international human rights violations to spark discussion by a wider audience. Our resources propose thought questions for viewers to interact with, and list suggestions for future engagement.
As an incubator, we will work to introduce foundational human rights principles to students and to all. We are not just protected under the Constitution, we are also afforded universal human rights protections under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This idea is not one that is often expressly educated on.
As a collaborator, we will highlight the work being done by local organizations and defenders and amplify their voices.
As a protector, we will work to preserve human rights documentation and scholarship through consistent information dissemination, despite a changing political climate and restrictions on institutional speech.
The pursuit of human rights advocacy requires continued courage and tenacity. The work is urgent and calls for sustained effort now. Can we be brave enough to stay human rights-hopeful?
We can. We must.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are the author’s only and do not reflect an official position of the University of Minnesota, the Human Rights Program, or the College of Liberal Arts. As an institution of higher education that values and promotes free speech, civil discourse, and human rights, we welcome a variety of perspectives and opinions from our student contributors that are consistent with these values.
Riley Stern (CLA ’26) is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying economics and mathematics, with minors in public health and creative writing. She is a student founder and senior research assistant at the Human Rights Program’s new experiential research and advocacy learning lab, the Human Rights Collaboratory. She is passionate about issues of food, water, and energy justice, climate change mitigation, sustainable development, and public information dissemination. In the future, she hopes to pursue a research career related to climate policy and energy economics.