Humanities at Work

Putting Research Skills to Work for the Public Good

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By Hadass Sheffer

In last month's column, Clem Price, a professor of history at Rutgers University at Newark, challenged academics to put their scholarly abilities to work in the public interest. He particularly noted the absence of academic voices on issues of civil liberties and human rights -- the voices of those who study historic change, as well as those who have lived through change and those who believe there is change yet to be made. This month's column tells the stories of four doctoral students who took time away from their graduate studies to work in internships at civil-liberties and human-rights groups.

Working With Refugees

James Schechter, a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, helped found the Refugee Youth Outreach Project there in 2000 in order to heighten the community's awareness about its own child-refugee populations, and to help those children adjust to life in the United States. The center provides a safe and supportive setting where the children are encouraged to speak about their experiences. They learn English and meet peers who have suffered similar traumas. Mr. Schechter is the center's coordinator and English teacher.

After forging a network of contacts throughout the school system, Mr. Schechter finally found a partner for his program at an alternative school "that was conducive to our experimental approach to integrating refugee youth into the community-at-large." Once school instructors and administrators felt comfortable with Mr. Schechter and his new program, he was asked to help propose and deliver coursework that would bring the children up to speed socially and academically. He devised some new learning environments for the older children; for example, locating a volunteer position at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art for a budding 15-year-old artist from Tibet. Mr. Schechter worked with adults as well, helping them to pursue a college education. He recalls teaching English to a 22-year-old high-school custodian from Tibet: "Our private sessions gave this person his first-ever opportunity for formal language training. He is now enrolled in a literacy program sponsored by the Boulder Public Library, and is applying for a scholarship to the University of Colorado."

Writing on Women's Issues

Kirsten Isgro interned with the International Women's Tribune Center, a nongovernmental organization that works with the United Nations. Ms. Isgro, a doctoral student in communication and women's studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, monitored and researched various international activities and conferences relating to women's issues. She encapsulated her research in four issues of Women's GlobalNet, a biweekly e-mail bulletin sponsored by the center and accessible to readers in more then 135 countries.

Ms. Isgro enjoyed the challenge of writing "for an international activist audience, translating complex information and UN jargon into accessible language for women around the world." She was particularly stuck by "how the process of communication production could be an empowering strategy for women's community groups, especially in the Global South regions that rarely get mainstream press coverage."

Aiding the Mentally Ill

Micah Parzen interned in 2000 at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which represents the interests of individuals suffering from mental illness and other forms of disability. At the time he was a doctoral student in anthropology at Case Western Reserve University, where his dissertation research focused on a wilderness-therapy program for troubled Navaho youth.

The Bazelon center's advocacy is based on the principle that every individual is entitled to choice and dignity, and it litigates cases that may influence public policy. Mr. Parzen's first assignment involved a New York State statute on outpatient psychiatric commitment known as "Kendra's law." Mr. Parzen explains that the statute "mandates outpatient treatment for individuals suffering from mental illness who are deemed at-risk for becoming a danger to themselves or others in the absence of treatment." The center believes the law "erroneously punishes mentally ill individuals for systemic problems in the delivery of mental health services in the United States." Rather than a coercive treatment regimen, the Bazelon Center advocates for the provision of comprehensive but voluntary mental-health services.

In an effort to persuade a New York State court to declare Kendra's law unconstitutional, the Bazelon Center contributed an amicus, or "friends of the court," brief designed to educate the judge about the pitfalls of outpatient commitment. To support the brief, Mr. Parzen compiled psychiatric and social scientific research on the problems of predicting violence, the negative impact of forced treatment on the therapeutic process, and the efficacy and side effects of drugs. Ultimately, the effort was unsuccessful, and the law still stands.

Helping a Human-Rights Group

In 2000, the St. Thomas University Human Rights Institute in Miami invited Raul Fernandez-Calienes, a newly minted Ph.D. in religion studies from the University of Sydney, to help with a comprehensive, bilingual media-relations strategy for the institute. Mr. Fernandez-Calienes created an Internet site and a public-service announcement for radio, which he then successfully promoted to an international satellite radio network. He also developed and edited brochures, translated documents into Spanish and Creole, produced fact sheets and PowerPoint presentations, coordinated volunteer help, and represented the institute at several public and private meetings.

"The experience had a major impact upon my skills," says Mr. Fernandez-Calienes, whose research focuses on Christianity in Asia and Latin America. "Especially listening. Also, I knew that human-rights work is complex by nature, but I learned about the need to balance administrative, paper-driven requirements with human, crisis-driven needs and sensitivities." He also honed his grant-writing ability and learned some fund-raising techniques.

What they Learned

All four of these students say the internships changed the role they had envisioned for themselves upon completion of their degrees.

After completing his Ph.D., Mr. Parzen enrolled in law school with a special focus on mental-health law, particularly on the insanity defense in the United States and the prospects and problems of using various human-rights mechanisms for protecting the rights of individuals who suffer from mental illness throughout the world. His ultimate professional objective is "to carve out a career that combines legal advocacy and scholarly research in support of individuals suffering from the disability and stigma of mental illness."

Summing up his experience, Mr. Fernandez-Calienes says, "I saw -- firsthand -- that humanities Ph.D.'s indeed can play a much wider role that often is perceived. Working directly with people -- learning of their experiences of frustration, fear, and repression -- has served to deepen my understanding of the direct impact of ideologies on the lives of people."

Working closely with other women who hold academic degrees and are taking active roles in policy-making issues pertaining to women helped Ms. Isgro redefine the value of her own degree and the use to which she will put it. "It confirmed my commitment to scholarship for social change," she reports.

"Humanities Ph.D.'s need to find creative ways to harness academic work for the betterment of our communities," adds Mr. Schechter. His community work, he says, greatly informed and enriched his academic research; he is now writing about the formation and management of self-identity in exile, focusing on the experiences of the refugee children he continues to work with. "We must challenge ourselves to be resourceful about demonstrating that our ostensibly esoteric interests are relevant to the needs of public institutions."