Joseph Loundy Human Rights Project

In 2008, with an initial $100,000 gift from alumnus Joseph Loundy, Roosevelt University established the Joseph Loundy Human Rights Project, a program unique in the US, in which students conduct comparative research on the promotion of human rights in the US and abroad. They then use that research to generate advocacy strategies for promoting human rights and social justice in Chicago.

Students engage in a series of seminars with national and local leaders in the year's designated advocacy area, which are also open to the public and the larger Roosevelt Community and then travel abroad for analogous seminars with human rights advocates and scholars in another country.  The students will use this comparative experience to analyze what has worked where, and why, and thus to predict the most likely effective solutions here in Chicago. Summer internships will allow students to work on implementing their proposals, according to Barratt.

"I want to thank Mr. Loundy for this generous and timely gift," said Roosevelt University President Chuck Middleton. "The Loundy Human Rights Project typifies Roosevelt’s mission of social justice. Students engaged in transformational learning often see the world in new ways and fundamentally change as people."

"We will address problems that not only are present in a variety of cities across the globe, but that also provide students an opportunity to have a visible effect on the communities around them," said Bethany Barratt, Associate Professor of Political Science, who directs the project.

Focus 2010-12: Miscarriages of Justice and Wrongful Convictions

As the Illinois legislature was poised to consider a repeal of the death penalty, spurred on in large part by the tireless work of the Chicago- area projects, such as Northwestern's Medill Innocence Project, its Center on Wrongful Convictions, and Loyola's Life After Innoncence Project, we took up investigating the points in the criminal justice system where the process fails and innocent people are sent to jail or put to death. The US and UK have been the pioneers for innocence projects. Results are measured one life at a time, but this may be the most important metric of all.  We travelled to London in Fall 2010 and will do so again in Fall 2011, and are partnering with key actors locally, including Roosevelt alum David Protess, former head of the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern, John Marshall Law School, and Rob Warden of Northwestern Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.  In addition, we are sponsoring a Fall 2011 speaker series that brings together key scholars in this field from across the country including Elizabeth Loftus of UC Irvine and Jay Koehler of Northwestern.

Others Fighting The Good Fight:

Better Government Association
Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions
[The New] Chicago Innocence Project

Doing work in this area? We'd love to know about it!
Please email Dr. Bethany Barratt, bbarratt@roosevelt.edu

Student Advocacy Areas

Student Research Trips