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The Daily Tar Heel
On The Wire

Yale student works to create human rights major

Yale student Justine Kolata wants to control her own academic future by creating a new degree program at the prestigious institution.

The junior philosophy and political science major said she wants to see the university offer a human rights degree program.

“My dad is an archeologist and I grew up wherever he was working in places like Cambodia,” Kolata said.

“From that experience I’ve lived around poverty and human inequality,” she said. “It sparked my passion for going to Yale and taking classes in human rights.”

She said that for two years she has been working with Yale administration to get them to offer the human rights major. Due to time constraints and Yale’s traditional review process, Kolata won’t be able to complete the major she designed.

“I hope that students in the future will be able to take it,” she said. “Alternatively, I’d be happy in having a wider range in courses around human rights.”

“I think it’s a really exciting time for human rights and academics,” Kolata said.

She said there hasn’t been a focus on teaching human rights and it will be important for people from different institutions to collaborate if the topic is going to gain academic recognition.

Brady Swing, a senior history, peace, war, and defense major at UNC-CH, said that a human rights major is something that would be sought after by students.

“I’m sure at a college like UNC you can find people who would want to be human rights majors,” Swing said.

UNC sophomore and environmental science major Michael Bibo said that human rights are an extremely relevant and important issue.

He said if there are classes and faculty available to make a coherent structure for a major, then being able to create your own major is a good way for the university to grow.

“I think if the resources are there then it would almost be restrictive not to be able to put together your own major,” Bibo said.

“I think it’s really important for students to explore, but I think it’s important to be grounded in a certain discipline,” said Kolata.

“I’m all for being creative and creating your own major, but have an understanding for the disciplines that exist and have been around for a while,” she said.

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