{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"\u201cOur voices really do matter from an early age\u201d \u2013 Student advocates at UC Santa Barbara highlight wrongful charges against Egyptian scholar Patrick Zaki","description":"Emma Hartley and Jonathan Gelfond, undergraduates at UC Santa Barbara in California, weren\u2019t sure if elected officials in Washington DC would agree to speak with them. They were advocating on behalf of Patrick Zaki \u2013 a University of Bologna graduate student formerly detained for two years, in apparent retaliation for his human rights research in Egypt. Though released in 2021, authorities continue to postpone Zaki\u2019s trial, and he faces up to five years in prison if convicted. To Hartley and Gelfond\u2019s surprise, they got four meetings on Capitol Hill. \u201cWe were focusing on issues that might not be these representatives or senators' first priority,\u201d Gelfond says. \u201cIt was really empowering.\u201d They join Free to Think along with their SAR Student Advocacy Seminar professor, Claudio Fogu, to describe campaigning on behalf of Zaki, using art as a tool for advocacy on campus, and the impact of engaging in human rights work. \u201cNo matter how daunting it may seem at first,\u201d Hartley says, \u201cour voices are important and they do make a difference.\u201d Learn about setting up a Student Advocacy Seminar on campus here: scholarsatrisk.org\/actions\/student-advocacy-seminars\/ ","author_name":"Free to Think Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/scholarsatrisk.org\/podcast","html":"