Kala Bhattar
Tennessee River watershed

Kala Bhattar is an Office Services Specialist II at the Institute for Human Rights (IHR) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science with a double Minor in International Relations and Human Rights, and a concentration in Global Politics and Policies at UAB. She started at the IHR as a blog intern in Fall of 2021 and is now working as a part of the team. She helps manage the communications for the Institute, assists in planning events, and provides assistance in research projects conducted at the IHR.

 

She has also moderated a panel discussion for an IHR sponsored event with Aja Barber on the intersectionality between colonialism, fast fashion, and climate change. Bhattar has moderated a conversation with Dr. Bernice King at the International Peace Conference held in Birmingham, Alabama in May 2023. Additionally, Bhattar has been serving her local community as a member of the Friends of the Locust Fork River (FLFR), an organization focused on keeping the environment clean and spreading environmental awareness throughout the community. She has been a volunteer at FLFR since Fall of 2021, and, has been advising the FLFR team as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader since Spring 2022.

 

Bhattar chose to work for the IHR because she is passionate about helping promote and protect the basic human rights of everyone in her community and around the world. As a blog writer, she has written on topics of both domestic and international importance, such as issues of food insecurity and homelessness in the United States, but also has captured the broader struggles of people around the world, especially in her series on Environmental Justice. The IHR has been an important platform for Bhattar to spread awareness about contemporary issues and has introduced her and prepared her for many opportunities that have assisted her in pursuing her academic goals.