What Makes an Award-Winning Academic, University or Project?
We speak to past THE Awards winners to find out about the work for which they and their institutions were recognized.
In this bonus episode of the THE podcast, we continue the theme of universities’ role in fostering civic engagement with an interview with renowned human rights scholar and award-winning author Kathryn Sikkink
Sikkink is the Ryan Family professor of human rights policy at Harvard Kennedy School, as well as faculty co-chair of the Harvard Votes Challenge, a nonpartisan initiative that has, since its launch in 2018, promoted student voter registration and turnout. Her books include The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities(Yale University Press, 2020) and The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics(W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), which won the Robert F. Kennedy Center Book Award.
In this discussion, we talk about the origins of Sikkink’s interest in human rights, what support students need to navigate the mechanisms of voting, and why showing up on election day is not just a right, it’s a responsibility.
Listen to this podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts or Google podcasts.