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A special project of Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic and the campus’s Undocumented Student Program has helped 103 Berkeley students decide whether to apply for a special immigration category that allows them to work legally and to avoid deportation. Most have won approval under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
International affairs archive
Law school’s Altholz wins 2013 Yamashita Prize
May 14, 2013: This year’s Foundation for Change: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize has been awarded to Roxanna Altholz, an assistant clinical professor of law and associate director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley Law. Altholz successfully represented 127 family members of 28 individuals who were forcibly “disappeared” between 1983 and 1985 by Guatemalan security forces.
Crown Prince of Norway visits, agreement signed with Haas
May 10, 2013: On a swing through the Bay Area, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit spent the afternoon at UC Berkeley Thursday, meeting with Chancellor Birgeneau and signing a technology-sharing agreement with the Haas School of Business.
From Marin to The Hague, working for justice
April 30, 2013: Alexa Koenig, who is finishing up her dissertation as she settles into her role as executive director of the Human Rights Center, plans to “engage pretty deeply” with the center’s work in war-torn regions all over the globe.
Haas faculty turn to crowdfunding for solar light research in Uganda
April 19, 2013: Three Haas professors are bypassing traditional grants and going straight to crowdfunding to raise money for a study on how to get people in rural Uganda to replace dangerous kerosene lanterns with life-changing solar lamps.
Cal Day launched graduating senior’s Berkeley experience
April 19, 2013: Senior Ahn-Thi Le’s UC Berkeley journey began with Cal Day, when she fell in love with the campus. Now, after following a path that took her to India to work with rural artisans and to a place in the CellScope initiative improving health care in Vietnam, Le is about to graduate.
Experts sound alarm over “perfect storm” in African Sahel
April 9, 2013: The African Sahel, beset with impacts from climate change and the most rapidly growing population in the world, could descend into large-scale drought, famine, war and terrorist control if immediate steps are not taken, according to a new report by experts from UC Berkeley and the African Institute for Development Policy.
Biblical scholar on his latest translation, Ancient Israel 
April 8, 2013: Biblical scholar Robert Alter considers himself a “literary archaeologist.” He discusses his latest Hebrew Bible translation, an award-winning work on the ancient Biblical books Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, on KQED radio’s “Forum with Michael Krasny.”
#GlobalPOV: Art, videos and Twitter take poverty curriculum to the world 
April 8, 2013: Three Cal alumni and teachers — a live-action sketch artist, a social-media proselytizer and a brilliant professor who is also an unapologetic Bono fan — have teamed up to create artful, provocative videos and brought Twitter into the classroom. The goal: to extend the teachings of Berkeley’s biggest minor, Global Poverty and Practice, online. The project could be a model for a new kind of public scholarship and online education.
Searching for ‘the Berkeley spark’ in Sub-Saharan Africa
April 3, 2013: Admission officer Lin Larson traveled to top high schools in Sub-Saharan Africa to talk to disadvantaged, talented young students about UC Berkeley and opportunities to be a MasterCard Foundation Scholar.
Edwin Okong’o, ‘storyteller by any medium necessary’
March 26, 2013: Swahili instructor by day, comedian by night, campus lecturer Edwin Okong’o mines the immigrant experience for comic gold in his stand-up routines. A “storyteller by any medium necessary,” the Cal journalism grad also speaks his truth as radio-show co-host, writer, reporter and award-winning video producer.
Latin America scholars on Chavez’s death, new Pope
March 21, 2013: What does the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and the election of an Argentinian cardinal as Pope, mean for Latin America? Experts from the Americas offer commentary, in English and Spanish, via the Center for Latin American Studies’ online video series “Critical Insights.”
Helping to shape global response to wartime sexual violence
March 20, 2013: Working with the Human Rights Center’s Sexual Violence and Accountability Project, Berkeley law students are aiding a multi-year effort to gather data on sexual and gender-based violence during and after war, across the globe, and to help craft better response policies.
Professor makes case for U.S.-Mexico border without walls
March 19, 2013: Against the background of fierce debate on immigration reform, Michael Dear’s Why Walls Won’t Work examines the often-thriving, but threatened, cross-border lives in communities straddling the U.S.-Mexico border.
Shaping a global response to sexual violence
February 13, 2013: International scholars, policymakers, human-rights advocates and foreign military leaders will take up the issue of sexual violence during and after conflicts at the Missing Peace Symposium 2013 in Washington, D.C., co-hosted this week by the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law.
New research on AIDS transmission focuses on cheating spouses
February 6, 2013: Public-health policy for AIDS prevention in sub-Saharan Africa underestimates the role that cheating spouses play in transmitting the virus, according to new research from UC Berkeley. For the new study, scientists created a highly detailed mathematical model to estimate whether HIV-positive individuals were infected during or prior to their current relationship.
Playwright/alum Stan Lai to discuss creativity, theater
January 25, 2013: The prolific director/playwright Stan Lai comes home to the Berkeley campus to talk about contemporary theater, culture and creativity in Asia and the United States — and what the world would be like without theater.
Public Health’s Potts: Educating women is the way to fight terrorism in the Sahel
January 25, 2013: Family planning and education for women are the best weapons to fight terrorism in Mali and the rest of Africa’s Sahel, according to an article by UC Berkeley public health professor Malcolm Potts, an obstetrician and reproductive scientist, published in the Los Angeles Times.
Law clinic hails victory for Guatemalan civil-war victims
January 17, 2013: In a ruling hailed as a victory for Guatemalan civil war victims, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has condemned Guatemala for its actions related to 28 forced disappearances in the 1980s. The International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley Law litigated the case along with the Myrna Mack Foundation, a human-rights organization based in Guatemala City.
War crimes scholar named to lead Human Rights Center
January 4, 2013: Alexa Koenig, a scholar of war crimes and international human rights law and Ph.D. candidate at Berkeley Law, has been named executive director of the law school’s Human Rights Center. Koenig has served as the center’s interim director for six months.
The grass-mud horse, online censorship, and China’s national identity
December 17, 2012: For the past decade, Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the School of Information, has been documenting Internet censorship by the Chinese government. He also tracks the impact of emerging online bulletin boards, blog-hosting portals, and microblogs similar to Twitter — and ingenious strategies, including wordplay, for resisting control.
Special Anglo-American relationship to be studied in new program
December 13, 2012: Whether it involves Reagan and Thatcher, FDR and Churchill, or the colonies and the crown, the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States is generally known – but not necessarily well-understood. A new program aims to change that.
Nation’s single-largest gift for scholarships to undocumented students announced
December 13, 2012: A $1 million gift from the Haas, Jr. Fund, announced Tuesday, Dec. 11, will provide scholarship assistance for nearly 200 undocumented students on campus, who come from 20 different countries.
Study abroad in Cairo gives student eyewitness view of Arab Spring
December 10, 2012: A UCTV Prime story tells how UC Berkeley student Justin Hinton was taking classes in broadcast journalism as part of his semester in Egypt when he found himself at the center of world events. As the Tahrir Square protests erupted around him, Hinton took his camera onto the streets, posting his film dispatches to YouTube and sharing a first-hand glimpse into history unfolding.
Peacemaking is her passion
December 4, 2012: Intent on creating a safe space for students to learn and talk about a fractious issue — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — Shannon Thomas founded a student organization at Berkeley. A double major in peace and conflict and Middle Eastern studies, and a Model U.N. delegate, she sees fostering peace as her path.
UK’s chief rabbi assesses ‘Future of Judaism’
December 3, 2012: In a lecture at Berkeley Law, renowned scholar Lord Jonathan Sacks argued for the importance of what he called the ‘Jewish voice’ in Western civilization.
An audacious mission in Africa
November 30, 2012: Patrick Awuah, who received his MBA from the Haas School of Business in 1999, went on to found Ashesi University in Ghana in 2002. His aim? To transform a continent through education.
Photo contest offers snapshot of students’ study-abroad adventures 
November 14, 2012: This week is International Education Week, an annual celebration sponsored by the U.S. State Department. The Berkeley campus is marking it with informational sessions, tabling on Sproul Plaza and a display of student photos from abroad, on Thursday, with an announcement of contest winners.
USAID invests up to $20 million in UC Berkeley’s global development initiatives
November 8, 2012: Recognizing UC Berkeley’s leadership in developing practical, innovative solutions for global problems, the U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded $20 million to establish a Development Impact Lab on campus.
Social enterprises launch from the classroom to the real world
November 5, 2012: A School of Information course trains students to create sustainable social enterprises for rural developing regions, using innovations in information and communication technologies. Have a look at five past student projects that are now full-fledged companies.
