The week of Feb. 4-8 brought new “borders” to The Bishop’s School.

Students celebrated Human Rights Week with exhibits exploring the borders that inhibit self-expression, dignity and basic human rights in various groups: in the school, the community, nationally and globally. The week highlighted the debates and controversies that underpin the imposition of such borders.

Each day, students examined new issues of human rights. On Feb. 4, the school was visited by David Shirk, director of the USD Trans-Border Institute, who discussed physical borders, particularly that between the U.S. and Mexico. Students also heard from Carlos Martell, a member of the school’s foreign-languages department, about his immigrant experience.

On Feb. 6, the theme was gender and sexuality borders, with a panel discussion led by faculty from UCSD, as well as an inter-faith dialogue on issues of gender and sexuality.

Racial and religious borders were explored on Feb. 7 with “GlobeFest,” during which 11 pavilions were set up on school grounds to showcase regions of the world representing the heritage of Bishop’s community, complete with food, border-crossing stories and cultural items.

Kip Fulbeck, artist, spoken-word performer, author and filmmaker, provided the keynote speech on Feb. 8, exploring multiracial identity. Fulbeck, who has been featured on CNN, MTV, The Today Show and PBS, is a professor of art at UC Santa Barbara.

The entire Human Rights Week event, whose purpose was to identify and break down discriminatory boundaries, was organized by a committee of students: seniors Kaleb Crawford, Eamon Johnston, Hope Sailer, Melissa Zucker; and juniors Alex Kilman, Kamran Jamil, Lily Mojdehi; as well as faculty advisor David Moseley.