The Vienna Master of Arts in Applied Human Rights has long been in a close partnership with the UNHCR Liaison Office in Vienna, to raise awareness among students on topics related to asylum, increase the number of refugee students, and to guide students in their applied human rights projects.
The UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency, Liaison Office in Vienna is a regular attendee of The Applied Human Rights World Café – an annual networking event that connects our Vienna Master students to inspiring organizations and initiatives, that aim to make a human rights impact. The Forum furthermore allows for enlightening discussions and an exchange of ideas for possible project cooperation between the students and participating organizations. It is there, that our enthusiastic students propose an exciting project initiative, which then ends in the many Human Rights Projects that arose from this strong partnership.
Since the beginning of our close cooperation in 2021, the UNHCR has supported a great variety of student Human Rights Projects – ranging from multimedia art installations, a living books event, a social experiment on prejudices, a board game, or a short film. We are very proud of our collaboration and the amazing initiatives that came ouf it!
The amazing project our students collaborated on with the UNHCR Liasion Office in Vienna include:
- A multimedia art installation of sculptures, fabrics, a refugee tent, and sound recordings, which explore the relationship between clothing and flight, called “Inhabitable” created by our students – Carolina Rinaldi and Paolo Giordano in 2022/23.
- “Blicke” – A short movie on refugee and migrant children in Vienna, that looks into their unique perspectives on life, reality and reams for the future, produced by our talented students Stefania Kulaj, Julia Häveker and Sarah Achar in 2023/24.
- A board game, titled “Ticket to Safety”, designed by our student Judyta Kuc, which aims to challenge prevailing perceptions about forced displacement worldwide, raise empathy, and reckon with racial discrimination and other forms of “othering”.
Listen to the statement of Sophie Hofbauer, the Senior Liaison Associate at the UNHCR, about the cooperation with the Vienna Master students:
Read more in the article published by the UNHCR HERE.