Professor Emeritus Rob Crawford (School of Interdisciplinary Studies, UW Tacoma) has been awarded the 2018 UW-UWRA Distinguished Retiree Excellence in Community Service Award.

Since his retirement in 2016, Professor Crawford has carried forward his research and passion regarding human rights, humane treatment of prisoners, and advocacy for an end to torture.

Crawford founded the Washington State Religious Campaign against Torture and has been its leader for the last ten years. He is a Faculty Associate with the UW Center for Human Rights. Rob works tirelessly toward the goal of ensuring the United States’ compliance with the most basic obligations enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to continued research and public teaching, he plays critical roles in organizing and moderating events, strengthening collaboration, and building coalitions among academic experts, nonprofits, politicians and journalists. His research and opinion pieces continue to be widely published, both online and in print media.

As one of his nominators noted, “[Rob Crawford] draws our attention to terrible crimes, summons us to reflect, and mobilizes us to act. His motive is compassion for the victims of these crimes, and his guiding principle is human decency.”