Skip to main content

Human Rights Studies

First in Human Rights

The University of Dayton established the nation’s first undergraduate human rights studies program in 1998. More than one hundred students have graduated from the program and pursued careers as human rights advocates and academics or humanitarian professionals in legal, governmental and nonprofit sectors.

The Human Rights Studies Program offers a B.A. in human rights studies, an interdisciplinary pre-professional degree firmly grounded in traditional liberal arts. Students, faculty, and staff participating in the program enter into it guided by their fundamental commitment to respect and promote the dignity of each human person. The program also offers a minor in human rights studies that students can integrate with any degree in the College of Arts and Sciences and even across units, making degrees in business, engineering or education all the more distinctive.

Promoting Respect and Dignity

Excellence in the classroom and robust experiential learning opportunities allow our students to explore and advocate for the human experience in today's world.

In the News
Diversity and Inclusion 12.04.23

UD senior Logan Trzeciak worked to make classrooms more inclusive by creating resources to educate faculty.

Read more
Human Rights 05.19.23

A distinguished scholar who has served as a consultant to the European Union and the United Nations will become executive director of the UD Human Rights Center.

Read more