2013 Report to Contributors: Angelina Snodgrass Godoy

(Report to Contributors, October 2013)

Angelina Snodgrass Godoy

Associate Professor of Law, Societies, and Justice and of International Studies

Helen H. Jackson Chair in Human Rights

Director of the Center for Human Rights

Areas of research: Human rights in Central and Latin America

Supported by: Helen H. Jackson Endowed Chair in Human Rights

Angelina is working to harness the enthusiasm and talents of local UW students to improve human rights around the world

I’ve found that you can’t teach human rights only in a traditional classroom. At the Center for Human Rights (CHR), we’re creating opportunities for students to get up close and personal with real-world problems.

Our students are searching through declassified U.S. government documents, hunting for evidence in cases of crimes against humanity that took place in El Salvador. That country’s armed conflict in the 1980s resulted in massacres, torture and the executions of civilians, many at the hands of the government. It’s a tough assignment to research, but our students are also traveling to El Salvador, talking to locals whose lives have been wrenched apart by violence. Through conversations, they learn what justice might look like to the victims.

That kind of face-to-face interaction motivates students to dig in deeper with their work because they see how their research can make a tangible difference in someone’s life. By engaging with the needs of the world, our students graduate with more fieldwork experience, stronger research skills, empathy, compassion and a much richer perspective on the world and their place in it. They’re more involved global citizens as a result.

All of the projects at the CHR are only possible because of external support. The Helen H. Jackson Chair funds have been absolutely fundamental to our success. With them, we’re generating a new model for teaching and research to help further global human rights.