3 Weeks in!

Well classes have officially begun, and a result, my life has suddenly gotten 10 times busier! Since I last updated you, so many things have happened-- I have made new friends from all parts of the world, I have had fascinating conversations that truly challenge my perspectives, I have discovered new passions and fields of interest, and above all, I have read more pages than I care to count.

While I had researched the University of Essex and the human rights program quite extensively prior to my arrival, it is now clear that I did not understand just how well-supported this program is. During our induction, each professor introduced themselves and the courses that they teach. Among this group was the current UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Expression, two former UN Special Rapporteurs, the Swiss Chair in International Humanitarian Law, and a leading consultant to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. They are all truly experts in their fields and bring extensive practical experience working on these issues in addition to their academic pursuits.

This made it very difficult to choose my classes for the term. The first week was primarily introductory, so we were allowed to shop around, to see what courses and teaching styles we found most interesting. In addition to our required core classes, Theory and Institutions of Human Rights and Human Rights Law and Practice, I also settled on two additional classes on The Laws of Armed Conflict and the Protection of Refugees in International Law (as well as my weekly Beginner Arabic course). Our core modules are expansive in both their depth and breadth. They make up about half of our total credits earned and span both terms. However, each weekly seminar is taught by a different professor from the program, so we have the opportunity to learn about each facet of human rights law from an expert in that subject. It is a terrific way of hearing a number of approaches and perspectives on human rights practice and to know that each day you are learning from the best.

As you may know with postgraduate study, the reading is intense and never ending. For each of my four classes, I average about 150 pages of reading per week, in addition to written assignments and outside activities. While this is certainly manageable after learning a few tricks for targeted skimming, it is also an essential part of my studies. Not coming from a law background, I have very little experience reading case law, which is now a significant part of the work that I will be engaged in. For many of my courses, each week is set up as a discussion, where we are given a problem scenario and asked to work through it as a class, drawing on the legal principles from that week's readings. I have found this to be a really terrific way of learning and it has in many ways served to force my out of my typically shy demeanor to take a more active participatory role in the classroom.

But honestly, my classes feel like just a fraction of what I am involved with here at the University. There are so many other opportunities to take advantage of. One such opportunity is the Digital Verification Corps managed by Amnesty International which I was accepted to and trained for last weekend. The DVC is a group of students from 6 universities across the globe who Amnesty trains in the tools of digital content verification to aid them in their research. Basically, more and more of the work that Amnesty does involves gathering digital content from the web, and using tools to verify the accuracy of this content, identify with certainty where it was filmed, and link it to other pieces of content documenting the same event. In my opinion, this is ground breaking work that is changing how we think about and approach human rights research, and I am privileged to be participating at such an early stage of its development. Over the course of the year, we will be verifying videos and images from the coalition attacks on the Syrian city of Raqqa, to be included in an interactive map that Amnesty is designing to show the level of destruction and civilian casualties that took place.

Additionally, I have been attending practices for the Jean-Pictet competition, which is similar to a moot court only it focuses on applications of humanitarian law and involves role-playing as reporters, armed groups, military leaders, NGO workers, and more. This also has been an interesting challenge for me, and while I still often struggle with the scenarios, it has been very helpful for seeing the types of situations where I may need to apply the humanitarian law principles that I am learning. Similarly, last week we had the first of a monthly International Humanitarian Law movie series, during which we watched a film that deals with some of the concepts that we have been exploring in class as another means of analyzing how these legal principles function out in the world.

But above all, the most enriching part of this experience thus far has been getting to know and learning alongside the other members of this program. I have never been in a space with this level of diversity, both of nationality and of thought. We all come to this work from such different backgrounds and bring with us our own conceptions of what human rights mean and the role they should play in the world. Despite all sharing common career paths, there is a range of disagreement that comes up both in and out of class regarding current international conflicts and human rights issues. I honestly did not expect this but it has been such an interesting part of my first weeks here and one which will certainly shape how I approach this work going forward.

The past weeks since classes began have been full of high points and lows, but through it all, it is clear to me that I am meant to be here, and that the experiences I am having now, and the people I meet, will be an important part of everything that I go on to do after this brief year of study. It is clear that this year will be as rewarding as I make it, and so far, I think I am doing quite well at making it something special. At times, I have been overwhelmed by the amount of work required and discouraged by the current gaps in my knowledge and experience, but that is why I am here and I can't imagine a better place to be studying human rights.

Until next time! (Gotta get back to reading)