The University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs hosted its Global Get-Together on Tuesday, connecting students with international fellows, alumni, community members, and Humphrey faculty and staff.
In celebration of the end of the fall semester, the Global Get-Together lunch is typically held three times a year and is an opportunity to celebrate the last semester’s work. It is also an opportunity to connect students and faculty from several different degree programs whose focus aligns with the Humphrey School’s global policy area, Global Policy Area Chair Eric Schwartz said.
Schwartz said that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Humphrey School has worked to rebuild the tight-knit community they once had through similar events.
The smaller size of the Humphrey School’s student body plays an important role in connections between students and faculty, making it easier to do whole-school events, Schwartz said.
“We’re not such a big school,” Schwartz said. “We’re a big school of Public Affairs, but we’re not a big school.”
Even with the smaller class sizes, Schwartz said it can sometimes be difficult for faculty to host one-on-one conversations with students, which is why events such as the Get-Together are so important.
“This builds social capital, which is a really important concept,” Schwartz said. “If you have that relationship, it’s a hell of a lot easier for a student who might feel intimidated about being in touch with a professor if they say ‘call me’ or ‘be in touch with me’ after a conversation like this.”
The end of the fall semester is not only a time for Humphrey students to connect and celebrate the work they have done, but it is also a time for the school to identify their main areas of focus, said Humphrey School Head of Communications Meagan Pierluissi.
“We’re working with the faculty to identify themes, not just one area of study, but a theme that multiple functions can feed into,” Pierluissi said.
Themes that Pierluissi said may play a big role in the Humphrey School’s studies include issues with water related to wars and climate change happening both in Minnesota and globally, humanitarian efforts in conflict or natural disasters and the engaging with others across divisions through the development of constructive dialogues.
“We’re a globally minded, Minnesota-situated policy school, so our students come here with a global focus,” Pierluissi said.
Schwartz said a recent focus of the Humphrey School is advanced policy analysis and developing expertise on difficult foreign policy issues.
Along with the Get-Together lunch, the Humphrey School hosted several other events Tuesday in honor of National Human Rights Day, including a faculty discussion on creativity in human rights research, a keynote address from the Center for Victims of Torture CEO Simon Adams and a Human Rights Day poster symposium put on by Humphrey students.
Nurudin Barre, a first-year graduate student at the Humphrey School, was one of several presenters to showcase their poster at the symposium.
Barre said his assignment was to commemorate Human Rights Day by creating a presentation on a specific human rights violation. Barre chose to focus on the systematic link between schools and prisons in the United States.
Barre said that the smaller class sizes at Humphrey have helped him feel like part of a community within the Humphrey School compared to his undergraduate experience.
“I think the difference between undergraduate and graduate school is people want to be here if they’re signing up for more school,” Barre said. “When you walk around here, you can see people who are passionate about so many different things. We all have such different wants and passions, but we all have the same goal, which is the best for the world, and human rights.”
