Starting in the fall of 2024, O’Neill students can help support the global fight against human rights violations and war crimes.
“It’s definitely a human security and community resilience issue,” explains Assistant Professor Courtney Page Tan. “Conflicts, human rights violations, war crimes—they all tug and tear at our capacity as individuals and communities to thrive and reach their full potential.”
Page Tan’s partnership with the Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center set the stage for creating both a course and an applied research opportunity that can count as an internship. What’s more, both options allow students to support the center’s work—all without leaving Indiana.
“It’s very, very rare for students to have the opportunity to interact with a federal agency remotely and in real time in this capacity,” Page Tan says. “This course offers students this incredible opportunity to get face time with center intelligence analysts and human rights lawyers, and to advance research that is making a huge difference in our national security.”
She says both the course and the applied research opportunity also serve as equalizers when it comes to offering elite opportunities to students since they would typically have to travel to—and live in—Washington, D.C., to participate in an experience like this.
“That can be quite expensive,” she admits. “It’s also difficult for people who have families, full-time jobs, or other obligations. That means, for many students, an elite D.C. internship is not really a possibility. But this course brings that same work to students, just in a remote setting.”
Students in the fall course will focus on specific topics and hotspots around the world where human rights violations and war crimes happen. They’ll learn how to conduct open-source digital investigations to pinpoint locations and activities on a more localized level while working to identify the individuals or groups responsible.
“Simply talking about countries or regions where these incidents happen sometimes doesn’t give authorities a lot of leverage in addressing human rights violations and war crimes,” Page Tan explains. “If we know more specifically about where it’s happening, we can talk about it with more granularity.”
The information students gather will go into a database Page Tan is creating to share with DHS, feeding into a data stream that will impact national security. She hopes it will eventually serve as both a resume builder for students and a resource for agencies, the public, and researchers.
“The students own everything they produce in this program,” she says. “While they’re sharing it with the center and it’s going into the database, they are the sole authors and owners of the information.”
The work they do during the fall semester will also act as a springboard for the spring semester if they choose. That’s when interested students will have the option to apply to extend their learning into a fully remote applied research opportunity with DHS that fulfills their internship requirements.
But with this incredible opportunity also comes a word of caution. Page Tan acknowledges that the material students encounter in the course and the internship can be graphic.
“In the course of investigating human rights violations and war crimes, you are exposed to images that can be very upsetting,” she admits. “We’re talking about atrocities like torture, extrajudicial killings, and genocide. We want students to be prepared for that.”
That’s why the course will also include education about support services and how students can cope with what they’re seeing and reading. They’ll promote resources like the university’s Counseling and Psychological Services—or CAPS—program and help them create a plan to work through what they encounter.
“This is obviously an area in which there’s a lot of very sensitive content,” Page Tan says. “But the direct impact students will have is very real. They can identify individuals, groups of interest, or common characteristics that can support the work of field investigators and intelligence analysts, and help DHS prevent these individuals from entering our country by cutting off their networks.”
She also emphasizes this opportunity isn’t just for students interested in working for the federal government or in homeland security. She says the skills learned can help students learn how to create a safer and more just world for victims through advocacy.
“Being trained in open-source investigation is really useful, whether you’re interested in public safety, criminal justice, or public affairs,” she says. “It has a lot of implications for those wanting to advocate for individuals threatened by these bad actors who are operating under the color of law and committing these atrocities.”
Interested students must apply for the course prior to enrolling. They also must have a 3.0 or higher GPA, provide references, and be a U.S. citizen, per DHS rules. Due to the potentially sensitive material, students can’t start the course until their junior or senior year. Graduate students also are eligible.
