Alumni Highlight

Eliana Kanefield
Thursday, March 22, 2018

The Institute for the Study of Human Rights congratulates undergraduate alumnus Eliana Kanefield on receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English at a university in Argentina. She will also be working at a local NGO focused on women’s rights.

Kanefield recently finished a six-month internship working with the Gender, Human Rights, and Culture branch of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). During the internship, she assisted with the development of a guide on lessons learned and good practices of national human rights institutions engaging with sexual and reproductive health issues. She also supported efforts to map intercultural interventions supporting indigenous peoples’ access to reproductive and sexual health, and drafted the UNFPA submission to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on engaging men and boys in ending violence against women.

Kanefield graduated from Columbia where she studied Hispanic Studies and Human Rights with a specialization in Ethnicity and Race Studies. While at Columbia, Kanefield co-founded Portales, an international undergraduate research journal with a focus on Latin American and Iberian cultures, co-developed a literacy and nutrition program, and taught classes in local public schools on conflict-resolution and genocide.

She has pursued her interests in human rights, diplomacy, and policy implementation through internships at the Human Rights Foundation, Office of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs, and Center for Democracy in the Americas.