Office of Grants and Programs Fosters Critical Research, Public Service
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Grant awards play a vital role in contributing to innovation in research, teaching, and project development at AUWCL. Awards help provide faculty, staff, and students with unique opportunities to pursue legal issues in vital areas related to academic studies and scholarship.
To encourage and help the AUWCL’s programs raise money to do their critically-needed work, the Office of Grants and Programs assists the law school’s centers, programs, and projects in all aspects of pre- and post-award activity, including identifying potential sponsors; helping design programs; assisting in the development of proposals and budgets; ensuring compliance with institutional policies and processes; and meeting sponsor requirements for reporting.
Recent grant awards include:
The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’s Anti-Torture Initiative was awarded a grant from Open Society Foundations in the amount of $98,592. This grant will allow the Initiative to focus on interrogation practices and the development of a protocol for interrogations by convening expert consultations to identify key issues; research and develop a report; release the report with coordinated high profile events; and follow-up through regional human rights institutions. “The thematic reports we have developed and presented to the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council have generated wide-spread state and media responses, helped assess global trends and practices in relation to the specific issues, and assist governments and civil society organizations in promoting and implementing recommendations,” said Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez, who also serves as a faculty advisor for the Initiative.
Continuing a long partnership with the Women of Color Network (WCON), the National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP) has received grants totaling $39,500. A new grant recently received will enable NIWAP to continue to provide training and technical assistance to enhance domestic violence intervention and prevention efforts. NIWAP has been a collaborative partner with WOCN on efforts to build the leadership skills of women of color, LGBTQ, and immigrant women working in the domestic violence and sexual assault movements. NIWAP’s work has included development of a curriculum for emerging leaders on policy advocacy and best practices for working with victims from diverse immigrant and limited English proficient communities.
For the sixth year, the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation has sponsored the Squire Patton Boggs Public Policy Fellowship, which enables an AUWCL student to work in a legal public policy/human rights position for the summer. “This grant helps us continue a core goal of AUWCL’s founding mothers—to serve underrepresented and underprivileged people,” says Jasmeet Sidhu, assistant director of the Office of Public Interest, which continues to promote this commitment. “Our public interest programs are among the strongest in the nation and offer unique opportunities for law students to gain legal experience through a broad range of pro bono and public service programs.” Typically, 12-14% of AUWCL graduates accept postgraduate public interest employment—almost twice the national average.
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