Student Advocacy Seminars

SAR’s Student Advocacy Seminars provide university and college students with the opportunity to develop human rights research and advocacy skills through direct engagement on behalf of threatened members of the global higher education community in cooperation with SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project and Scholars in Prison Project. Read the Student Advocacy Handbook to learn more.

Arranged and supervised by local faculty in partnership with SAR, each seminar takes on the case of one or more scholars facing unjust restrictions, prosecution, or imprisonment. This experiential program is tailored to each institution and group of students and is designed to give students a foundation in:

• Human rights research, standards, and mechanisms
• Organizing and advocacy
• Persuasive writing
• Leadership and teamwork skills

Student Advocacy Seminars are available to all SAR member institutions. Over the course of the seminar, students gain a deeper understanding of the value of the academic freedom they enjoy and the risks scholars and students around the world face in the pursuit of knowledge. Students organize awareness-raising advocacy initiatives, develop reports, partner with seminars at other campuses, and have the chance to put their advocacy skills into practice at SAR’s Student Advocacy Days. To learn more, contact SAR’s Student Advocacy Seminar Coordinator Adam Braver at adam.braver@nyu.edu.

Adam Braver is Scholars at Risk’s Student Advocacy Seminars Coordinator. In addition, he is on faculty at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, where he is a member of the faculty in the Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, and also serves as the University Library Program Director. He is the author of six novels, and also edits the Broken Silence book series on dissident’s stories for the University of New Orleans Press.

Student Advocacy Handbook