The Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Institute welcomes opportunities to collaborate with both Duke-based organizations, our communities in Durham and the Triangle, and the broader human rights community on events that advance our mission: to foster strategies and collaborative, cross-disciplinary and critical thinking about human rights in both local and global contexts. 

Due to limited capacity, we prioritize co-sponsorships that meet the following criteria: 

Mission Alignment 

The event engages directly with human rights—whether through: 

  • Current human rights law and practice,
  • Critical or theoretical approaches to human rights, including critiques of existing laws and frameworks, and/or
  • Emerging frameworks or imaginative redefinitions of rights. 

The event reflects a commitment to critical inquiry. 

Educational Value 

The event contributes to the educational mission of the Center, ideally by: 

  • Connecting to Duke courses, student organizations, or research initiatives
  • Offering opportunities for student learning, dialogue, or creative engagement and/or for staff and faculty development that will impact research and teaching at Duke

Community & Campus Engagement 

The event has a clearly defined audience. Preference is given to proposals that demonstrate clearly identified campus or community partners and/or audiences and a rationale for DHRC involvement. 

Capacity Considerations 

We are a small team and cannot support all requests. We encourage potential partners to: 

  • Submit requests well in advance
  • Be specific about the kind of support they are seeking (e.g., funding, publicity, co-hosting, logistics)
  • Have a clearly defined outreach plan
  • Keep us in the loop with your logistics plans
  • Be open to feedback or suggestions for alignment with DHRC priorities