Katie Muirhead

Katie Muirhead graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a 4-year BA in Human Rights and Global Studies (now Human Rights) in 2015. She continued her education at Global College by pursuing a master’s degree through the Joint Master’s program in Peace and Conflict Studies. She is now a PhD candidate in the Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of Manitoba.

Muirhead’s fondest memory of her time at Global College is when she travelled to New York to attend the United Nations and Ottawa to visit the Department of Foreign Affairs as part of a Study Tour facilitated and directed by Professor Marilou McPhedran.

Muirhead explains that her background in human rights is helpful in many ways. For example, “before the refugee crisis became mainstream news, I was familiar with many of the problems refugees were facing,” she says. Muirhead was able to help friends and family make sense of what was happening, and also offer a list of programs and resources they could access to learn more. Muirhead adds, “My family even sponsored a family from Syria!”

Muirhead explains that “a human rights degree is so diverse – you will find a use for it everywhere you look.”

When asked what message she would like to pass on to future students, Muirhead said, “No matter where you settle in the world, you are not far from someone or somewhere that has seen a major human rights violation occur and so it is important to learn how to navigate those situations. This upcoming generation will be narrating our future; if we have been on the wrong side of history, let’s hope we get to the right side of the future.”