Santana Kavanaugh (NYU Gallatin) |National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers| NYC, United States
My name is Santana Kavanaugh and I’m from Lexington, Ky. I am a rising junior at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. My concentration is Critical Race Theory, Human Rights & Minority Studies. I also plan to pursue an MPA in Nonprofit Management via Wagner. Since my sophomore year of high school, I’ve been involved in democratic political campaigns in Kentucky and New York. I also have experience as a community outreach coordinator and non-profit organizer. I currently work with the Simon Wiesenthal Center as an anti-hate instructor for NYC youth but my ultimate goal is to become a human rights lawyer. I am also currently in pursuit to start a nonprofit that aids low-income families of color with access to nutritional foods.
This summer, I will be interning at the National Association of Defense Lawyers in Washington, D.C. from June 20th to August 30th. I’ll be working closely with their Racial Disparity Policy team to uncover the structural racism and oppression that hinders African Americans, and to develop a proposal for international human rights action and reparations for African American Descendants of Enslaved People. Since the birth of America, African Americans have been denied the opportunity to live the American dream by a system of exploitation, discrimination, exclusion, and targeted efforts to inflict harm. With this project, I’d like to attempt to create a standard for critical approaches to dismantling oppression against African Americans via policy reform and restorative justice. When I first applied to the Gallatin Global Human Rights Fellowship, I knew that I wanted to focus on the oppression of African Americans but my main focus was mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex. After taking the Human Rights Fellowship course with Professor Vasuki Nesiah, my project has since expanded to consider other systems of inequality such as healthcare and wealth disparities.
I believe that the antecedent phase of this project has already enhanced my career development. This opportunity made me realize my desire to be a reparations lawyer. I always knew that I wanted to go to law school and help African Americans but upon starting this project, I discovered the field of restorative justice attorneys. I feel strongly that this summer will be significant to my academic and professional growth and I am very grateful for this opportunity.
Thank you for reading!
– S.K