Digital læringslunsj: Transformative and Collaborative Research Practices

Transformative and collaborative research practices: the experience of SAR/Human Rights Advocacy

Gabriela Mezzanotti and Åsne Håndlykken-Luz (HIU)

In a time when authoritarian regimes increasingly target intellectuals, SAR (Scholars at Risk)  Human Rights Advocacy at USN seeks a human rights education that transforms passive learning into critical, reflexive action. At SAR Human Rights Advocacy, we explore new ways of imagining and sensing advocacy, seeking to transform human rights into an emancipatory praxis.
In this talk, we will:

• share how our experience with SAR Human Rights Advocacy led to an academic article co-authored with students, now accepted for publication in the Journal of Human Rights Practice (Oxford Academic).
• address how we engaged in a collective feminist autoethnography with our students, combining artivism, multisensory engagement, and critical writing.
• explain how we structured the research process with students, supported their active participation, and co-created knowledge rooted in solidarity, relationality, and critical praxis.

This experience illustrates how advocacy in higher education can become a transformative and collaborative research practice, reshaping worldviews and contributing meaningfully to human rights scholarship (Mezzanotti, G.; Håndlykken-Luz; Å; Ben Achour, M.; Shange, S.; Aricapa, LMG; Nduta Miring'u, C. 2025).

Reference:
Mezzanotti, G.; Håndlykken-Luz, Å.; Ben Achour, M.; Shange, S.; Aricapa, LMG.; Nduta Miring'u, C. (forthcoming).
“Why Do You Fear My Way So Much?” Artivism as a Path Toward Pluriversality in Human Rights Education: Our Escrevivência. Journal of Human Rights Practice, Oxford Academic.