HRSMA Graduate News is a hub dedicated to celebrating the success and meaningful impact of ISHR students, faculty, and alumni - both on Columbia's campus and beyond. Here we feature student and alumni profiles, faculty news, student awards and recognitions, as well as stories and reflections, all of which highlight the remarkable people who make up ISHR's vibrant community.
HRSMA Alumna Ishita Petkar joins a panel of alumni at the 10th installment of GSAS SynThesis competition where they shared their experience and offered advice to current students.
ISHR is delighted to announce that Tatiana Kotlyarenko, ’07 Human Rights Studies M.A. received the GSAS Dean’s Award for Distinguished Achievement.
On Monday, May 4, 2026, the ISHR community gathered to mark the end of the academic year and celebrate graduating human rights students. Faculty, staff, students and their families were treated to a special evening that featured student performances and celebrated the hard work and accomplishments of ISHR’s graduating class.
The Institute for the Study of Human Rights congratulates the human rights students who received departmental honors and prizes in 2026. Read more below.
ISHR wishes to congratulate the winners of the 2026 Human Rights Thesis Competition.
ISHR congratulates the winners of the 2026 Human Rights Essay Contest.
As part of an Alliance project between Columbia, Sciences Po and Paris-1 universities on 'Women in Crisis', Jackie Dugard (ISHR, Columbia) and Angela Greulich (Sciences Po) produced a 4-minute video on the relationship between fertility and climate change, surveying the literature on whether having fewer or no children should be a (voluntary) consideration in Global North countries.
Katherine Beall, Human Rights Studies MA, ‘15, shares an update with ISHR including the publication of her new book "New Regional Authorities: Self-Determination and the Global South."
On March 4, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, with support from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, hosted a reunion for graduate and undergraduate human rights alumni.
Graduate and undergraduate human rights students and recent alumni are invited to participate in the 2026 Human Rights Thesis Competition on Thursday, April 23.
Read our interview with Skylar (Sky) Lingo, Human Rights Studies M.A. ‘24.
ISHR is proud to announce that Leyla Bilalova, Human Rights Studies M.A. ‘26, was awarded the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis International Fellowship for her superior academic accomplishments.