The study of human rights and social justice has a long history at Florida State University. The central hub since 2000 has been the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. Created by funds from an anonymous donor, CAHR has facilitated the development of human rights-related courses at the university for twenty years. It has also established field placements for FSU students in human rights organizations and supported the work of NGOs that engage in human rights advocacy and prevention across the world.

Anchored in the Religion Department, the Human Rights and Social Justice major involves faculty from multiple disciplines and departments (anthropology, African American studies, communications & media, criminology, economics, English, entrepreneurship, fine arts, geography, history, international affairs, modern languages, philosophy, political science, social work, sociology, theater, women’s studies, etc.). It offers FSU undergraduates an educational experience that will prepare them to work in a number of arenas related to human rights and social justice.

The Religion Department, in turn, established in 1967, is one of the oldest at a public university in the United States. Several of its faculty members, across the department’s five decades of existence, have made human rights and social justice central concerns in their research and teaching.