Kevin Copeland
Class of 2003

After returning from a year of studying European Law in Toulouse, France, I was eager spend my last year at UCSB applying my studies and fluency in French to a research project or specific work with a non-profit organization. Aside from a few non-governmental organizations in town and a limited number of research projects at the university, I found my search to be quite challenging. Thanks to the council and commitment of Mark McGinnes, I begun both research and work with the International Bill of Rights Project(IBOR). As a project within UCSB, IBOR offers independent research opportunities for undergraduates in the field of international human rights. While my research focused primarily on the European Court of Human Rights, I also worked on strategizing our lobbying efforts and participation at the United Nations Human Rights Commission(UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, during April 2003. With the help of an Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities(URCA) grant, I went with Kirk Boyd and the IBOR team to the UNHRC with the specific role of organizing our conferences and lobbying with French speaking delegates and non-government organizations. This experience was a perfect way for me to employ Global Studies and my passions to the actualization of a progressive project.

Since graduation, I have maintained an active role with IBOR. Due to the fact that my time living in Santa Barbara has been prolonged by a year, I found myself in a position to continue working with the project and students as the Research Director. Although I work in restaurants for the moment to make ends meet, it has allowed for a flexible and regular travel schedule, including my recent participation with IBOR at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India. While still in Santa Barbara, my hope is offer other students the same extracurricular opportunities that have so profoundly influenced who I have become. Working closely with Lisa Hajjar, we offer interested students the opportunity to study international human rights, with the possibility of taking it as far as they would like. To this end, we are working with a few students that we anticipate will participate at the UNHRC this year. It was no surprise to find that there are many students, from all disciplines, looking to become active in an organization in their field of interest. Creating more possibilities for students to expand their knowledge, perspective, and experience through organizations like IBOR is essential to their academic development and should be encouraged and supported by the university. Fortunately, IBOR receives this support and will continue to offer regular research and extracurricular opportunities to students. I look foreword to continuing my education in international law and intend to go to grad school, but for the moment, that will have to come after a bit more travel, a few more international conferences, and a whole lot more fun.

Kevin Copeland
kevin_copeland81@yahoo.com

Return to Alumni page