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MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Two Middlebury students have received fellowships from Humanity in Action, an international educational organization based in New York. Daniel Buchman ’18.5 and Robert Brisson ’19 will join a cohort of 54 international fellows in various European locations this summer. Buchman will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark at the end of May, while Brisson will travel to Warsaw, Poland. The two were accepted from a pool of 510 applicants in the U.S.

The Humanity in Action Fellowship brings together international groups of Fellows to study minority rights and produce original research exploring how and why individuals and societies, past and present, have resisted intolerance and protected democratic values. Separate programs take place for five weeks every summer in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Berlin, Copenhagen, Sarajevo, and Warsaw.

At the conclusion of their fellowships, Buchman, Brisson, and the rest of the fellows in Europe will convene in Berlin, Germany for the Eighth Annual Humanity in Action International Conference from June 22 to June 25, 2017. The 2017 International Conference will will explore the rise in nationalist sentiment, xenophobic rhetoric and political extremism across Europe and the United States, and the resultant challenges to transatlantic relations and domestic policies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Since 1999, Humanity in Action has engaged more than 1,600 Fellows in its transatlantic study programs focusing on human rights and minority issues—past and present—in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the United States. Humanity in Action’s international network of leaders is a valuable resource to policy-makers, diplomats, educators, business leaders and civic-minded individuals and organizations. The organization supports all Fellows financially for the duration of their programs, allowing for the merit-based selection of diverse applicants.