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Special Announcement

HIA has added more program dates for the 2012 Fellowship Program. The HIA Fellowship in Warsaw will take place from June 25 through July 22, 2012. The HIA Fellowships in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris will take place, as scheduled, from June 1 to July 1, 2012.

Applicants from the United States are eligible to apply for the programs taking place from June 1 to July 1, June 25 to July 22, or all program dates.

 
The 2012 application is now available at apply.humanityinaction.org.

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• A Note About HIA's Focus
• Eligibility
• Costs
• Selection
• HIA Curriculum
• Obligations/Opportunities

Overview

Humanity in Action (HIA) Fellowship programs will take place for five weeks in the summer of 2012 in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris and Warsaw. The HIA Fellowship in Warsaw will run from June 25 through July 22, 2012.  The HIA Fellowships in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris will run simultaneously from June 1 through July 1, 2012.

Intensive and demanding, the HIA Fellowship programs bring together international groups of college students and recent graduates to explore national histories of discrimination and resistance, as well as examples of issues affecting different minority groups today.

Each program is highly interdisciplinary, and features daily lectures and discussions with renowned academics, journalists, politicians, and activists, as well as site visits to government agencies, non-profit and community organizations, museums, and memorials. The programs seek to highlight different models of action to remedy injustice.

The objective of the HIA fellowship is to facilitate a collective exploration of the social and political roots of discrimination, as well as to provide a forum where potential solutions can be considered and discussed. The programs are also intended to instill a responsibility among HIA Fellows to recognize and address the need to protect minorities and promote human rights—in their own communities and around the world.

To this end, HIA Senior Fellows (alumni of the HIA Fellowship) are expected to participate in HIA's international network once their programs end—and to sustain their engagement in the issues addressed during the fellowship.

Applications for the HIA Fellowship program are due by 11:59pm PST on January 9, 2012.

A Note About HIA's Focus

HIA's fellowship programs concern human rights activities generally, but they focus specifically on the relationship between majority and minority populations in the five European countries where the programs take place—Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland. The programs address a carefully selected range of subjects intended to give the Fellows analytical and multicultural skills and perspectives that will aid in their study and work on a broad range of human rights issues in the future.

HIA’s European programs use the legacy of the Second World War and the Holocaust as the main historical foundation for examining contemporary issues, such as the relationships among European immigrant communities and their host societies or current notions of solidarity, especially in Poland. We are particularly concerned with the contemporary causes and consequences of xenophobia as well as religious, ethnic, racial, gender, and national identities present in Europe and especially the five HIA European countries.

The fellowship programs explore national diversity issues in regard to their economic, educational, political, social, cultural, religious, and environmental ramifications. We also use the specific national lens to explore the international implications and repercussions of the treatment of minorities in those countries. It is important for applicants to recognize that these issues—connecting human rights to domestic national policies and attitudes—are central to HIA's mission and educational activities during the five-week fellowship programs. While we recognize the importance of international tensions and the impact of global issues, the HIA fellowship programs concentrate almost exclusively on issues and problems in continental Europe.

For five weeks, the five HIA European countries serve as case studies that Fellows can later use as they engage with other human rights issues. We discuss other international tensions, such as those pertaining to Iraq, Iran, Darfur, Afghanistan and the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and global issues such as the environment, but we primarily address them as they affect domestic issues in the five European countries and not in regard to their root causes. A wide range of international topics, conflicts, and crises are addressed in HIA conferences, study trips, and internship opportunities for HIA Senior Fellows, the alumni of our programs, but the fellowship itself—the entry point into the HIA network—adheres to a strong national focus.

This is the HIA method, refined over a dozen years of programmatic development. Those who are primarily interested in universal or global issues are encouraged to focus on the specific scope and purpose of the HIA fellowship programs—and extract learning from the European experience for broader international and human rights considerations and applications through subsequent HIA activities. Those who prefer instead to study international conflicts should carefully consider whether the HIA programs are right for them. 

Eligibility

Applicants to the HIA Fellowship must be currently enrolled undergraduate students (sophomores, juniors, and seniors), or recent graduates (classes of 2010 and 2011) at accredited, four-year undergraduate colleges or universities in the United States.

If you are an American citizen studying at a foreign university, you are eligible to apply to the HIA Fellowship through the U.S. office. If you are an American student studying at a university in Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands or Poland, you may be eligible to apply through HIA offices in those countries. Please contact those offices directly to confirm your eligibility.

HIA seeks applicants who are mature, proactive, self-reliant, and comfortable in intensive group activity and interaction. All majors and academic disciplines are encouraged to apply.

Applicants may not apply to a program in a specific country and cannot choose their city of participation. 

Selection Process

Admissions to the HIA Fellowship program is extremely competitive.

Last year, HIA received 510 applications and selected 44 Fellows. Selections are made on the basis of demonstrated commitment to minority rights and social justice, evidence of leadership potential, significant academic achievement, and social maturity.

HIA does not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity, religion, political party, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or financial ability.

Costs

HIA covers the costs of participation and accommodation during the fellowship. However, all Fellows will be responsible for financing the cost of airfare to participate in the program. HIA will cover this cost for Fellows with documented need.

Although HIA provides a modest stipend for meals, Fellows should also plan to bring spending money of approximately $500 for food and social activities during the fellowship program.

About the HIA Curriculum

As European societies become increasingly diverse with the influx of immigrant populations, the tensions and challenges of respecting diversity while maintaining core social and cultural values come to the forefront of public debate.

The HIA European Programs explore connections between Europe’s unique history during the Second World War and the Holocaust and tensions related to minority populations that are manifest in European societies today. Key areas of inquiry include anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and political extremism, seen through the specific lens of each of the five countries.

The programs will also examine the different logics of inclusion and exclusion at play in the integration versus assimilation debates underway in these societies. The Fellows are invited to propose answers to these challenging questions that advance the welfare of these societies while promoting the universality of human rights and social justice.

HIA will select approximately 10 Fellows from American universities for each program, who will be joined by equal numbers of participants from each European country. Students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, and Sweden will also participate in certain program countries.

Although each of the five Fellowship programs promote team research and debate on human rights and social justice in democratic societies, the scope and focus of the programs differ slightly in each city of participation. 

HIA Obligations and Opportunities: After the Fellowship

Action Projects

As a requirement of participation, Fellows are obligated to conduct a hands-on outreach initiative—an “Action Project”—in their home communities. The initiative should reflect the HIA fellowship experience. Upon successful completion, Fellows are invited to become Senior Fellows and to join the global HIA network of young advocates.

Professional Fellowship Opportunities

Every year, HIA places more than 50 Senior Fellows in professional fellowship programs and internships to provide practical experience working on human and minority rights. Over 270 Senior Fellows have completed HIA-sponsored internships since 1999. HIA professional fellowship opportunities include the United States Congress, the European Parliament, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and a wide variety of grassroots and community organizations in San Francisco.

HIA Senior Fellows Networks

HIA supports the professional development and continuing public engagement of its Senior Fellows through internship opportunities in government and grassroots organizations, career and academic guidance, and Senior Fellows Associations in nine countries that sponsor annual conferences and offer seed grants for social entrepreneurship initiatives. Previous Fellows have used the knowledge and experience gained in HIA programs to further their educational and career goals in public service, journalism, medicine, law, education, the arts, business, and grassroots activism.