Assistant Project Manager Camryn Hughes Quoted in Article About Afghan Voices Project
University of Massachusetts 2023 graduate and political science major Camryn Hughes was featured this past week in an media article about Human Security Lab’s Afghanistan project. Hughes has served as Assistant Project Manager on the Afghan Voices Project at Human Security Lab and as a research assistant on projects relating to the protection of civilian men in Ukraine and the impact of the new nuclear ban treaty, coding and analyzing public opinion data from three major initiatives.
According to the news article, Hughes joined the lab in summer 2022 after taking a course on Rules of War with Lab Director Carpenter in the prior spring. “The course sparked her interest in human security studies, and working in the lab opened her eyes to how ‘hands-on and personal’ international relations could be.”
Hughes is one of many students who have worked on Human Security Lab projects, from fields like political science, legal studies, international relations, psychology, and economics. Students train in research methods, human rights issues, and data analysis software to carry out sophisticated analyses of large volumes of data from conflict zones.
“Working in the lab with Dr. Carpenter has built my academic and professional confidence in a way few other experiences have,” Hughes told reporters. “She made me feel like my opinion was truly valued and that my participation matters. It’s been easily one of my favorite parts of my undergraduate experience.”
Speaking about her work on the Afghan Voices project, Camryn stated: “One of the most interesting things about that survey was how respondents interpreted the term ‘human rights.’ I wasn’t expecting that to be a polarizing term; I wasn’t expecting, going into the data, to see people say ‘I don’t believe in human rights for women. I think instead of human rights, women need education, health care, and freedom of travel, freedom of dress, marital autonomy.”
Ms. Hughes has a background in refugee advocacy with experience in state politics on Afghan issues, and her research interests include humanitarian affairs, gender and foreign policy, and political economy. With her BA behind her, she now holds a position with a Massachusetts-based refugee and immigration law firm, and continues collaborating with Human Security Lab’s Afghan, Ukraine and nuclear projects as a consultant. She will also co-author Human Security Lab’s report this year on the survey data collected from 26,000 Afghans as part of an NSF-funded research project. Camryn is currently considering graduate work in human security and data analytics.