Human Rights Center Collaborative
Elevate Your World
See how the collaboration between the University of Dayton School of Law and the Human Rights Center offers you a unique opportunity to explore firsthand the issues around human rights across the world.
Elevate Your World
See how the collaboration between the University of Dayton School of Law and the Human Rights Center offers you a unique opportunity to explore firsthand the issues around human rights across the world.
Students Work Side by Side with Human Rights Scholars
With the rise of global instability, the world more than ever needs lawyers trained in the law of human rights. At the University of Dayton School of Law, students aren’t merely learning about human rights; they’re putting that knowledge into practice.
In a unique collaboration with the University’s Human Rights Center, students and faculty work side by side to protect the rights of the world’s most vulnerable citizens.
Human Rights Concentration
See how you can take a concentration in Human Rights while getting your J.D.
Human Rights Center
Find out about the important work and teaching being done by the Human Rights Center.
Human Rights Graduate/Law Fellowship
Discover how you can receive a grant to do a research or advocacy project around human rights.
Social Practice of Human Rights
This biannual conference provides a space for scholars, practitioners and advocates to engage in collaboration, dialogue and critical analysis of human rights advocacy.
The History of the Dayton Law-Human Rights Center Collaborative
The Origins of the Human Rights Center
In 2013 scholars and practitioners from around the world convened in Dayton for the University’s first Social Practice of Human Rights Conference. At this landmark event, then UD President Daniel Curran had an announcement to make. The University would proceed with a bold new project to establish a Center for Human Rights. According to Curran, the new Center would “chart the frontiers of cutting edge research and advocacy.”
Housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center was a natural outgrowth of the University’s highly acclaimed Human Rights Studies program. The Center’s work grew out of a collaboration with two programs: Abolition Ohio, a research and advocacy initiative to end human trafficking in Ohio, and Welcome Dayton, a local immigrant rights endeavor. Today the Center today has grown considerably and taken on an international dimension.
In 2017 the Center moved to Keller Hall to share space with the law school adding to the connection between the two.
The Birth of the Collaborative
In July 2015 when Andrew Strauss became the 10th dean of the University of Dayton School of Law, the potential for a collaborative soon became apparent. “The Center had a strong understanding of the social and political dimensions of human rights, and our faculty and students could bring the law to bear,” Strauss says.
The Collaborative is unique in scope. It integrates a new human rights course, UDSL’s Civil Clinic, and joint research between the Center and the Law School. All of these endeavors bring the reality of human rights study and advocacy directly to UDSL. The Collaborative’s course on human rights, for example, challenges students to understand how treaties hammered out in the faraway halls of the United Nations and other international power centers can protect the rights — and even transform the lives — of citizens around the world.
Professor of Law
Associate Professor of Professional Skills; Leadership Honors Program Director
Adjunct Professor of Law; Hanley Sustainability Scholar
Professor; Executive Director of the Human Rights Center
Program In Law and Technology Director; Adjunct Professor of Law
Director of Programs, Faculty of Practice, Human Rights Center; Research Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Professor of Law
Professor of Law
Professor of Lawyering Skills; Coordinator of Human Rights