How can we close the gap between theory and practice, between institutions and the people they are meant to serve?
To better understand how to bridge this gap, I pursued Civic Studies as an undergraduate at Tufts University, which is how I stumbled upon Dr. Jonathan Garlick’s Freshman Seminar Science and the Human Experience the spring of my first year. Through guided classroom dialogues, guest lectures, and even science raps (if you know, you know), Dr. Garlick encouraged our class to think critically about complex and often controversial science-based issues, from stem cell research to epigenetics to abortion. It was the first time I was given a dedicated space to talk about science and health from a truly “human” lens. When my mother fell ill with stage IV melanoma that semester, I felt like I had the dialogic tools and science literacy to discuss her treatment plan with her doctors, and a community to fall back on whenI returned to campus.
As I neared the end of my time at Tufts, I sought courses that would give me practical skills to make change in my communities. In the three years since I took Science and the Human Experience, the world had shifted profoundly. I lost my mother to cancer. COVID-19 completely transformed healthcare and vaccine treatment. Political polarization deepened public mistrust and disillusionment in institutions. When Dr. Garlick told me he was offering a new class, Science and Civic Action, it felt like perfect timing— a full-circle moment. Through organizing a public “concern gathering” and a forum focused on critical science issues, we learned how to build inclusive community spaces and bring scientists and citizens together as co-creators of democratic change.
Both classes offered me opportunities to explore human rights issues through the lens of science. In Science and the Human Experience, I wrote an op-ed on why health should be considered a human right in the United States as my final project. I posited that integrating human rights principles into our healthcare system would shift care away from profit-driven, reactive treatment and toward more upstream, equitable approaches that address the root causes of health disparities. In Science and Civic Action, I co-organized “Reclaiming Reproductive Rights in an Age of Restriction,” a dialogue-based forum that discussed the question of personhood and how we can protect reproductive autonomy. (This forum was incredibly timely, organized just after the Texas Heartbeat Act was put into effect and months before Roe v. Wade was overturned.)
Along with a strong and vibrant community on campus, these classes provided me with the skills and framework to enact grassroots democratic change. I learned how to establish trust across difference, craft arguments rooted in evidence, empathy, and cultural humility, and critically examine the dynamics of power and privilege — civic science principles that also happen to be critical to mobilizing democratic change on a global scale.
Upon graduating, I searched for opportunities that would allow me to bring my interest in international affairs to a more personal, grassroots level. I found this at the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that focuses on promoting and protecting human rights globally, with an emphasis on authoritarian regimes. Central to HRF’s mission is direct collaboration with activists on the frontlines of the fight for freedom. By equipping activists with funding, technology, global networks, and training, HRF strengthens grassroots movements for democracy and freedom from the ground-up.
Although I didn’t end up in a science-related field, I apply civic science frameworks to my human rights work every single day — specifically building trustworthiness, rooting in empathy, and understanding power and privilege.
As development communications manager, my job is to relay the impact of our programs to donors and galvanize action. For those living under democracy, the challenges facing activists in authoritarian regimes might sometimes feel far away, intangible, or abstract. By translating complex human rights crises and centering activist stories, I attempt to humanize the struggle for freedom and connect with people across diverse backgrounds and cultures. Our team constantly asks ourselves: How can we elevate human rights activists’ stories into mainstream conversations? And how can we bring everyday people into the global movement for freedom?
Although I didn’t end up in a science-related field, I apply civic science frameworks to my human rights work every single day — specifically building trustworthiness, rooting in empathy, and understanding power and privilege. To activate donor support and incite action, you must first build trustworthiness and convince people that their resources will make a measurable impact. To build connections with individuals across divides and disciplines, you must root appeals in empathy and connect to elements of the shared human experience. And to make realistic asks to donors, you must have a thorough understanding of power and privilege, and how those dynamics shape who has access to resources and what kind of change is possible within a given system.
Last February, I helped organize HRF’s College Freedom Forum at Tufts, an installment of an event series that brings critical conversations about human rights to universities around the world. It was another full-circle moment for me — an opportunity to revisit the Hill at Tufts and reconnect with the place where I first learned about the power of dialogue. As facilitator of roundtable discussions between human rights activists and Tufts students, I drew from civic science principles to encourage participants to share personal narratives, ask questions rooted in genuine curiosity, and approach complex topics from a place of cultural humility. The discussion reflected an earnest and mutual search for understanding about the global threats to democracy — and as a result of each participant’s humility, honesty, and curiosity, we shared powerful insights and came out of the conversation with practical ideas to propel pro-democracy movements forward.
In both classrooms and global forums, I witnessed the power of civic dialogue and citizen inclusion to kickstart policy change. I learned that democracy is not an abstract system, but instead a lived practice sustained by dialogue, trust, and participation.
Just as civic science seeks to repair the disconnection between institutions and the public, the field of human rights is a constant and dynamic effort to bridge gaps between national and international institutions and civil society — to democratize the political process, and make demands heard. As I continue building a career in human rights, I will continue to carry forward the values of humility, inclusion, and empathy that I learned in Dr. Garlick’s civic science classes.
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Liz Shelbred is a development communications manager at the Human Rights Foundation, where she supports the organization’s fundraising efforts by managing donor communications and assisting with donor prospecting and cultivation. As part of this role, she also helps organize the Oslo Freedom Forum, HRF’s annual human rights conference in Oslo, Norway. Shelbred graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and civic studies. At Tufts, she was a staff writer for The Tufts Daily, an Oslo Scholar at the Albert Einstein Institution, and a human rights intern for the Trebuchet.
