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Scribes for Human Rights

About the Fellowship

The Human Rights Program and the Creative Writing Program inaugurated the "Scribes for Human Rights" fellowship in January 2006. The fellowship supports a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) student to work with the Human Rights Program as a writer-in-residence. The Scribe learns the issues and meets the players involved in the Program’s public human rights work, then uses this experience to write an article for publication for a large audience. It is our hope that the fellowship will also inspire its writers to pursue other human rights themes in their future work.

It is expected that the Scribe’s relationship with the Human Rights Program will present an urgent and profound set of circumstances to engage the creative talents of selected MFA students, including writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry who will transmit the deeply individual faces of human rights abuses and vulnerabilities to a broader audience."Reports" alone do not serve the Program’s needs; Scribes will focus on a narrative and write for a broader citizen-audience would greatly enhance the efforts of the Human Rights Program to get our message out to the community and the world.

The Scribes

Our first Human Rights Scribe was Laura Flynn. Laura Flynn took on the fellowship as a highly qualified third year MFA student, concentrating in literary nonfiction. She was also well-grounded in human rights work, having spent five years in Haiti (background we don’t anticipate in future Scribes, but particularly fortunate for our charter fellowship recipient). During her nine months as Scribe, Ms. Flynn looked firsthand at the conditions of confinement and treatment of persons being held in Midwest jails for immigration violations. During the course of her fellowship, Ms. Flynn visited jails, met with U.S. Government officials and with human rights organizations representing detained immigrants in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. Ms. Flynn published an article about her experience, entitled, "Visiting Hours," in the April 2007 edition of The Rake.

Our second Human Rights Scribe is Emily Bright. Ms. Bright is a third year MFA student who has field experience teaching monthly orientation classes to new immigrant  arrivals in Minnesota. Ms. Bright has chosen to research the grassroots social movements working to prevent genocide in Darfur, including the Minnesota Inter-Faith Coalition on Darfur. Starting in summer 2007, she will intensively study the work of these groups, what motivates people to act on a conflict occurring so far away, and how effective the groups are in changing the situation internationally.

Faculty Advisors

Patricia Hampl and Barbara Frey supervise the Scribe’s research and writing in human rights. Professor Hampl, a Regents Professor at eh University of Minnesota, with years of experience as an editor and free-lance writer, offers guidance in narrative writing, voice, format and audience. Professor Frey facilitates contacts for interviews, provides expertise on the legal framework for the story and makes sure that the work is grounded in accurate background information. The Scribe has access to an entire network of human rights organizations and professionals that work with the Human Rights Program.

The Human Rights Program and the Creative Writing Program continue to seek out funds to support this exciting program. Long-term we hope to endow the Scribes for Human Rights fellowship on a permanent basis.

For further information, contact Barbara Frey, Human Rights Program, freyx001@umn.edu, or Patricia Hampl, Creative Writing Program in the Department of English, hampl@umn.edu.

 

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