Skip to main content.
  • Faculty + Staff
  • Alumni/ae
  • Families
  • Students
Bard
  • Bard
  • Academics sub-menuAcademics
    • Academics
      • Programs and Divisions
      • Structure of the Curriculum
      • Courses
      • Requirements
      • Academic Calendar
      • Faculty
      • College Catalogue
      • Bard Abroad
      • Libraries
      • Dual-Degree Programs
      • Bard Conservatory of Music
      • Other Study Opportunities
      • Graduate Programs
      • Early Colleges
  • Admission sub-menuAdmission
    • Applying
      • Apply Now
      • Financial Aid
      • Tuition + Payment
      • Campus Tours
      • Meet Our Students + Alumni/ae
      • For Families / Para Familias
      • Join Our Mailing List
      • Contact Us
      • Link to Instagram @bardadmission
  • Campus Life sub-menuCampus Life
    • Living on Campus
      • Housing + Dining
      • Campus Resources
      • Get Involved on Campus
      • Visiting + Transportation
      • Athletics + Recreation
      • Montgomery Place Campus
      • Current Students
      • New Students
  • Civic Engagement sub-menuCivic Engagement
    • Bard CCE The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) at Bard College embodies the fundamental belief that education and civil society are inextricably linked.

      Take action.
      Make an impact.

      • Get Involved
      • Engaged Learning
      • Student Leadership
      • Grow Your Network
      • About CCE
      • Our Partners
  • Newsroom sub-menuNews + Events
    • News + Events
      • Newsroom
      • Events Calendar
      • Press Releases
      • Office of Communications
    • Special Events
      • Commencement + Reunion
      • Fisher Center + SummerScape
      • Family and Alumni/ae Weekend
      • Athletic Events
    • Join the Conversation
      • Link to Facebook @bardcollegeny  Link to Twitter/X @bardcollege   Link to Instagram @bardcollege  Link to Threads @bardcollege  Link to YouTube @bardcollege

  • About Bard sub-menuAbout Bard
    • About Bard College
      • Bard History
      • Campus Tours
      • Employment
      • Visiting Bard
      • Support Bard
      • Inclusive Excellence
      • Sustainability
      • Title IX and Nondiscrimination
      • Board of Trustees
      • Bard Abroad
      • Open Society University Network
      • The Bard Network
  • Give
  • Search
Bard Human Rights Program

News and Events

Human Rights Menu
  • Requirements + Courses
  • Faculty
  • Student Opportunities
  • Fellowships
  • News + Events
  • Home

Sonita Alizadeh ’23 Releases New Memoir

Sonita Alizadeh ’23, Bard College alumna and human rights activist, has released a memoir chronicling how she avoided child marriage twice, escaped Afghanistan to pursue her dreams, and evolved into a woman who is changing the world. In Sonita: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom, she shares incredible highlights of her life, like winning the song writing contest that gave her the opportunity of a lifetime, as well as harrowing chapters, like when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, and how some of her family escaped while others were left behind.

Sonita Alizadeh ’23 Releases New Memoir

Sonita Alizadeh ’23, Bard College alumna and human rights activist, has released a memoir chronicling how she avoided child marriage twice, escaped Afghanistan to pursue her dreams, and evolved into a woman who is changing the world. Born under Taliban rule, Alizadeh faced the threat of child marriage at the ages of 10 and 16, before finding her voice through music. She has since performed on global stages and collaborated with artists and organisations that share her mission, and has addressed world leaders and worked with NGOs such as the UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International to push for change. In Sonita: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom, she shares incredible highlights of her life, like winning the song writing contest that gave her the opportunity of a lifetime, as well as harrowing chapters, like when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, and how some of her family escaped while others were left behind.
Read More in the Adobo Magazine Profile of Sonita Alizadeh ’23

Post Date: 07-15-2025

Bard College Announces Two Recipients of the Second Annual Anthony Lester Fellowships to Support Practical Work in the Field of Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Hadeal Abdelatti will use the fellowship to investigate concerns around the handling of deceased inmates’ organs in the state of Alabama. James Rooney will use the fellowship to provide legal advice and assistance to the Streha Centre, an LGBTI+ shelter and community service in Albania, for three months in summer 2025. Each fellow will receive a stipend of $25,000.

Bard College Announces Two Recipients of the Second Annual Anthony Lester Fellowships to Support Practical Work in the Field of Human Rights and the Rule of Law

The Human Rights Project at Bard College has announced this year’s recipients of the Anthony Lester Fellowships, which support practical work in human rights and the rule of law. Fellowships have been awarded to Hadeal Abdelatti and James Rooney. Abdelatti (a Cambridge law finalist and aspiring barrister) will use the fellowship to investigate concerns around the handling of deceased inmates’ organs in the state of Alabama. James Rooney (a barrister-at-law specializing in public interest and human rights law from Ireland) will use the fellowship to provide legal advice and assistance to the Streha Centre, an LGBTI+ shelter and community service in Albania, for three months in summer 2025. Each fellow will receive a stipend of $25,000.

The fellowship committee selected Abdelatti and Rooney from a large number of applications because their projects exemplified Anthony Lester’s commitment to the practical use of the rule of law and human rights as a tool to do good in the world.

Thomas Keenan, director of the Human Rights Project at Bard, said: “From Alabama to Albania, these two creative young advocates will pursue projects of critical, and painfully symptomatic, urgency. Hadeal Abdelatti and James Rooney are showing us that the front lines of human rights work today are dynamic and complex. In the spirit of Anthony Lester, they know what's worth fighting for.”

Hadeal Abdelatti is an experienced researcher and final-year law student at the University of Cambridge. Abdelatti spent two years working as a student researcher for a university-wide project investigating the systemic legacies of colonialism in Cambridge’s teaching and learning. In 2024, Abdelatti won a SEDA Award in recognition of her work on this project.
 
In the summer of 2024, Abdelatti undertook an internship with The Woods Foundation in Alabama. During this time, she learned how gaps in state legislation are leaving room for unethical practices, particularly around the retention and appropriation of deceased prisoners’ organs without clear consent or adequate communication with their families.
 
Abdelatti’s project for the Lester Fellowship aims to address concerns around the handling of deceased prisoners’ organs. Through a combination of mapping, legal research, litigation, and community engagement, Abdelatti aims to pinpoint gaps in oversight, inform legal and policy reform, and raise awareness to help strengthen community responses to potential rights violations.

James Rooney is a barrister-at-law in Ireland. His practice specializes in public interest and human rights law, regularly representing asylum seekers, people experiencing housing precarity, and parents whose children have been taken into care by the state. He cofounded a weekly clinic at the Free Legal Advice Centres in Dublin, focused on addressing the unmet legal needs of the LGBTI+ community in Ireland. The work he proposes to do with the Lester Fellowship derives from his passion for practical human rights work and a motivation to put his extensive legal education to good use in the service of others and will focus on the Streha Centre in Tirana, Albania.

Rooney’s Lester Fellowship project will provide legal advice and assistance for three months in summer 2025 to the Streha Centre, an LGBTI+ shelter and community service in Albania. Established in 2014, Streha is the first LGBTI+ residential shelter in Southeast Europe. Streha provides emergency accommodation, legal advice, and social supports for LGBTI+ clients experiencing discrimination and social exclusion in Albania and throughout the wider region. Streha fields daily requests for urgent legal advice from LGBTI+ people, including on how to seek international protection in the European Union due to persecution, including death threats, torture, and discrimination, on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Rooney will use his expertise as an immigration lawyer and LGBTI+ rights advocate in a country receiving international protection applications from Albanian nationals, to provide assistance in advance of their seeking asylum. Rooney’s project is a timely and worthwhile focus as the possible withdrawal of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding in the coming year could jeopardise one of the few sanctuaries for vulnerable and marginalized sexual minorities in Southeast Europe.

Anthony Lester Fellowships
The fellowships honor the memory and legacy of Anthony Lester QC (Lord Lester of Herne Hill), one of Britain’s most distinguished human rights lawyers. As a young lawyer, Lester visited the American South twice during the civil rights movement and wrote a report on race relations. His experiences there inspired his pioneering work as a barrister and legislator. He wrote in his memoir Talking to Myself that, while on a fellowship in the United States, he realized “the practice of law could be used to promote political and social change . . . Reinforced by my involvement with American constitutional law and civil rights in the Deep South, I decided to give it a try. It was life-changing.”

The fellowships are administered by the Human Rights Project at Bard College, and supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the Lester family.  Maya Lester KC, Anthony Lester’s daughter and a British barrister, said: “We are delighted to be able to offer these fellowships in memory of our father who was inspired by his early international experience and an enthusiastic mentor to lawyers early in their careers wanting to do something useful for the world.” Gideon Lester, Anthony Lester’s son and Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Fisher Center at Bard, added: “We are grateful to the Gatsby and Open Society Foundations for their leadership support, which ensures that these fellowships exist in perpetuity, and to Bard College’s Human Rights Project for administering them.”

Post Date: 06-24-2025

Sonita Alizadeh ’23 Named 2025 Cannes LionHeart

Sonita Alizadeh ’23, Bard College alumna and human rights activist, has been announced as the 2025 Cannes LionHeart by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The honor is awarded to a recipient who harnesses their position to make a positive difference to the world, and Alizadeh has used her platforms as the first professional Afghan rapper, an activist, and an author to fight child marriage and gender injustice and be a global voice for women’s rights.

Sonita Alizadeh ’23 Named 2025 Cannes LionHeart

Sonita Alizadeh ’23, Bard College alumna and human rights activist, has been announced as the 2025 Cannes LionHeart by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The honor is awarded to a recipient who harnesses their position to make a positive difference to the world, and Alizadeh has used her platforms as the first professional Afghan rapper, an activist, and an author to fight child marriage and gender injustice and be a global voice for women’s rights. “Sonita’s journey is an inspirational story of resilience and courage,” said Philip Thomas, chair of Cannes Lions. “Through her music and her activism, she has used her voice and her platform to challenge oppression and inspire the next generation.” 

Born under Taliban rule, Alizadeh faced the threat of child marriage twice, at ages 10 and 16, before finding her voice through music. She has since performed on global stages and collaborated with artists and organisations that share her mission, and has addressed world leaders and worked with NGOs such as the UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International to push for change. “Being awarded the Cannes LionHeart is more than an honor—it’s a powerful affirmation that using my voice to fight for girls' rights and freedom matters,” said Alizadeh. “This award reflects the journey from silence to sound, from being sold to standing on the world stage. It reminds me that no dream is too wild when it’s rooted in truth, courage, and purpose.”
Learn More About Sonita Alizadeh

Post Date: 05-06-2025

Human Rights Events

There are no upcoming events at this time.

Events Archive

2025
  
2024
  
2023
  
2022
  
View Full Archive


2022

Thursday, November 17, 2022
  Dr. Winter Rae Schneider ’10, Accountable History Network Cofounder
Olin 201  6:40 pm – 8:00 pm EST/GMT-5
This final chapter from Schneider's manuscript Debts of Independence: Rural Accounts of Sovereignty in Haiti’s Nineteenth Century locates the mutual foundation of national sovereignty and rural self-sovereignty in the practice of rural family land ownership. It argues that sitting with ancestral experience and memory in the nineteenth-century agricultural plaine des Gonaïves demands a shift in our understanding of the persistence of colonial property and its meaning over time.


Monday, November 14, 2022
Cars and Jails: Freedom Dreams, Debt, and Carcerality
Olin Humanities, Room 102  5:30 pm – 7:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Bard’s new Carceral Studies speaker series launches with a visit from the NYU Prison Education Project. Their recently published book Cars and Jails: Freedom Dreams, Debt, and Carcerality explores how the car, despite its association with American freedom and mobility, functions at the crossroads of two great systems of entrapment and immobility– the American debt economy and the carceral state. We will be joined by four of the Lab members, a group representing formerly incarcerated scholars and non-formerly incarcerated NYU faculty. 


Tuesday, October 4, 2022
A Human Rights Project Event
Olin Humanities, Room 102  5:30 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Photography in Kashmir has emerged as a powerful witness to its troubled present. A new generation of photographers, rooted in photojournalism but escaping its limits when they can, have illuminated Kashmiri life in a period of upheaval. Over the last three decades their work has demonstrated the radical part that can be played by photographs in subverting established views of Kashmir—as a beautiful landscape without its people; as an innocent paradise; and more recently, of a paradise beset by mindless violence.

Witness brings together images by nine photographers from Kashmir, the oldest already a working professional in 1986, and the youngest not yet twenty in 2016. The images are by Meraj Uddin, Javeed Shah, Dar Yasin, Javed Dar, Altaf Qadri, Sumit Dayal, Showkat Nanda, Syed Shahriyar, and Azaan Shah. 

The text emerged from conversations with documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak, and brings out the varied relationships that each contributor has to photography and to Kashmir, in the process raising questions about the place of artistic practice in zones of conflict.


Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Campus Center, Multipurpose Room  5:30 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
During the pandemic, Forensic Architecture undertook a process of transformation. Rather than growing to meet the intensity of the challenges they faced, the agency instead decided to morph into an interlinking structure of smaller, situated, activist groups located in different parts of the world and working in solidarity with local political actors. This lecture will present some recent cases undertaken by these groups. Coincidentally, they had all to deal with doors: open when they needed to be closed, locked when they needed to be unlocked. These doors stand for the collapse of the social order which they promised to maintain, and point to systemic racism and the ghosts of our colonial past. 

Eyal Weizman is a professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures and founding director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2010 he founded the research agency Forensic Architecture and has directed it ever since. Forensic Architecture is an interdisciplinary team of researchers that produce evidence for presentation in national and international courts, human rights forums, parliamentary inquiries, truth commissions, people’s tribunals, and also in art and cultural forums.


Friday, May 6, 2022
Online Event  12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Join us for the launch of Putting the Cooker on Low, a new Digital Commission by Ama Josephine Budge. Ama was the 2020/21 Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism at Bard, and we are honored to welcome her back to premiere her new video. Ama is a British-Ghanaian speculative writer, artist, researcher and pleasure activist whose intradisciplinary praxis works to hold together Blackness, pleasure, art and ecology towards queerly climate changing futures.

Putting the Cooker on Low explores the daily rituals that allow Black women, femmes, and nonbinary folk to keep creating in the midst of spiritual, emotional, familial, societal, and ecological crises. Putting the Cooker on Low intimates that which happens in the simmer and bubble, on the back burner and the top oven, in the side eye and the hot pot. Thinking with an ancestry of Black feminist petitions for self-preservation, this visual essay works to make visible and then unsettle the ways in which Black womxn artists internalize value-(as)-labor-(as)-capital. The cracks, crevasses, and slippages these antierotic modes of survival engender—as felt by both human and nonhuman ecologies—remain forced from view until they become black holes, into which we are swallowed and disappear. Often without a trace. It is with the cooker on low, that resistance might reduce into potency. It is with the cooker on low that we never run out of gas.

Learn More

Register Now


Thursday, February 24, 2022
  Jorge Maldonado Rivera is a union representative with the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and a former staff organizer with UNITE HERE.
Campus Center, Yellow Room 214  3:30 pm – 4:50 pm EST/GMT-5
This talk is part of a speaker series on political organizing. It is co-sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement, the Human Rights Project, and the Political Studies program. It is open to all members of the Bard community, especially students interested in labor organizing.