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The Human Rights Film+ Series is sponsored by the Human Rights Institute, Dodd Human Rights Impact, and the Department of Digital Media and Design.
Event Canceled: Women, Life, Freedom: Iran’s Uprising & the Power of Digital Media
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Event Canceled: Women, Life, Freedom: Iran’s Uprising & the Power of Digital Media
The Human Rights Film+ Series is sponsored by the Human Rights Institute, Dodd Human Rights Impact, and the Department of Digital Media and Design.
Ordinary Curators at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
4:00 pm – 5:15 pm
The Dodd Center for Human Rights – Room 162
In Person & Online
This talk will draw on a companion article to Christine Sylvester’s recent book Curating and Re-Curating the American War in Vietnam and Iraq (Oxford, 2019). Published in the International Relations journal Security Dialogue, “Curating and Re-Curating the American War in Vietnam” (2018) explores the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington as a “museum” site where “ordinary curators” authorize themselves to re-curate the war to put mortality –not state, honor or soldier heroism –at the heart of it. The piece mixes elements of new museum thinking with consideration of object assemblages composed and left at the Memorial, as well as the personal memories Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk curates into a museum to lost love in his novel The Museum of Innocence (2008). It challenges a field known for abstract theory to humanize its knowledge base by noticing ordinary civilians re-curating inherited versions of war.
Join us!
This event will take place in-person
in The Dodd Center for Human Rights.
It will likewise be available online
on Zoom. Please register regardless
of the modality you plan to join.
Christine Sylvester is sole author of 7 books on International Relations, among them Art/Museums: International Relations Where We Least Expect It (Routledge), Feminist International Relations: An Unfinished Journey (Cambridge) and Producing Women and Progress in Zimbabwe (Heinemann). She has held the Swedish Research Council’s Kerstin Hesselgren Professorship, a Leverhulme fellowship at SOAS University of London, and was an Eminent Scholar of the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section of the International Studies Association. She was named one of Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations (Griffiths, Roach, Solomon), and today’s article was among 20 pieces recognized for pushing academic boundaries of security thinking over the 50-year history of Security Dialogue (M. Murphy, 2020).
The Research Program on Arts & Human Rights explores how the arts can promote the full exercise of human rights and the consolidation of a democratic culture. It is a proud collaboration between the Human Rights Institute and the School of Fine Arts.
Civic Engagement: Our Collective Responsibility to Participate in Democracy
Thursday, December 8, 2022
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Konover Auditorium
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
In a time of unprecedented partisanship and political divisiveness, what role do we all as individuals play in fostering/cultivating a robust democracy with respect for human rights? Join us to consider these and other questions about the central role of civic engagement in the United States today.
Opening remarks will be delivered by former Senator Chris Dodd. Special guest Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut will be joining us from Washington. Professor and President Emeritus Susan Herbst will serve as moderator.
This discussion is made possible by Travelers.
At Capacity
Thank you for your interest in joining us! We have unfortunately reached the seating capacity for the room. If you would still like to still attend, we will happily accept walk-ins for any remaining available seats when the event begins.
Christopher J. Dodd represented Connecticut in the United States Congress for 36 years – three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and five terms in the U.S. Senate. Senator Dodd was a widely respected legislator and a key participant in nearly every major national policy debate over his four decades of public service. He authored or co-authored major legislation in the areas of education, health, financial services, foreign policy, and election reform.
Chris Murphy, United States Senator for Connecticut, has dedicated his career to public service as an advocate for Connecticut families. Senator Murphy has been a strong voice in the Senate fighting for affordable health care, sensible gun laws and a forward-looking foreign policy. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he has been an outspoken proponent of diplomacy, international human rights and the need for clear-eyed American leadership abroad. Murphy currently serves as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism.
Susan Herbst is Professor of Political Science and UConn President Emeritus. She is author of many books and articles about public opinion, media and American democracy. Her recent book, A Troubled Birth: The 1930s and American Public Opinion (University of Chicago Press, 2021) explores our sustained struggle to understand the nature and role of popular sentiment in the United States.
If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact humanrights@uconn.edu.
Community Dialogue on Solar Energy & Electro-Mobility: Opportunities & Challenges for a Just Energy Transition in Connecticut
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
In Person and Online
Heritage Room – Homer Babbidge Library
Clean energy has become one of the key strategies to mitigate and reduce the effects of climate change, reduce oil dependency, improve the quality of our environment, and reduce household expenses on energy. However, the benefits from energy production and distribution have not been equally experienced by all communities. And the negative social and environmental consequences have not been equally shouldered. The clean energy transition may be an opportunity to redress some of those inequalities.
Please join us for an event aimed at fostering dialogue among community representatives, researchers, and policymakers interested in the equity implications of solar energy and electric mobility. Together, we’ll explore the sustainability and human rights challenges and opportunities that the clean energy revolution might bring to these sectors. We’ll focus, in particular, on the situation of historically underserved communities in Connecticut.
Faculty members from the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering and Human Rights Institute will share their research and all participants will engage in active discussion. In-person and hybrid options for participation are available.
Join us!
This accessible event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
The event will be hosted in the Heritage Room (Level 4 of the Homer Babbidge Libary), as well as online through Zoom.
A collaborative venture between the Human Rights Institute and UConn’s School of Engineering, the Engineering for Human Rights initiative is focused on making human rights an integral component of effective engineering practice. We are teaching tomorrow’s engineers risk management, climate resiliency, life-cycle analysis, and impact assessment. Our faculty specialize in research key to advancing human health, environmental sustainability, and industrial competitiveness. Together, we are focused on safeguarding people and nature, while advancing innovation.
If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact humanrights@uconn.edu.
Rwanda’s Restorative Journey: Living Alongside Your Enemy
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Konover Auditorium
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Three days into the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi, Carl and Teresa Wilkens made the heart wrenching decision that she would take their young children to safety, and he would stay at their home in Kigali and try to help. Neither had any idea that during the next 100 days more than a million people would be slaughtered, often by their neighbors.
Through the sharing of first-hand accounts of the catastrophic 1994 genocide and the country’s rebuilding journey that followed, Carl will discuss restorative justice and practices and engage us in guided conversations about what those practices mean today, particularly in the realm of rebuilding trust.
Join Us:
This event is in-person only in the Konover Auditorium of The Dodd Center for Human Rights. All are welcome!
Register Here.
It is co-sponsored by UConn Global Affairs, the Center for Judaic Studies & Contemporary Jewish Life, and Dodd Human Rights Impact.
As a humanitarian aid worker, Carl Wilkens was one of two Americans who refused to leave Rwanda as thousands of expatriates and UN soldiers fled the country in the face of what is now known as the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. Working together with Rwandan colleagues they brought food, water, and medicine to orphans trapped around the city.
These days Wilkens travels around the globe using the transformative process of storytelling and restorative practices to explore topics such as polarization, harmful conflict, and belonging. He is the Co-founder and Director of World Outside My Shoes.
“I’m Not Leaving”
In advance of the event, we encourage you to watch the 40-minute documentary, I’m Not Leaving, available in full & free on YouTube.
This 40-minute documentary shares snapshots of the genocide through the eyes of Carl and his wife Teresa along with: Gasigwa, a courageous Rwandan colleague whose home became a safe-house, Laura from the US Embassy who wrestled with Washington, DC to not abandon their mission, and Phil, one of the handful of UN peacekeepers who volunteered to stay in Rwanda and were tenuously hanging on to save lives. Their gut-wrenching choices and unexpected alliances formed during the 100 days of slaughter leave us with a surprising sense of hope and agency.
If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact humanrights@uconn.edu.
From Crisis to Activism: The Human Right to Adequate Food in the 1970s
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Dodd Center for Human Rights – Room 162
How did the human right to adequate food figure in an intersection of U.S. foreign and domestic politics in the 1970s? This presentation will address the joint history of human rights principles and neoliberal economics in the response of state and non-state actors to global food insecurities. This subject poses questions about the principles and politics that formulated modern concepts of resource distribution and access to the most basic necessities of life.
David L Evans is a doctoral candidate in U.S. foreign relations history at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on the formulation and global politics of economic, social, and cultural human rights, and specifically the human right to adequate food. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., David earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Before entering academia, he served eight years in the United States Marine Corps where he deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Philippines, and Japan.
This event will take place in-person in the
Dodd Center for Human Rights, Room 162.
We kindly ask that you register to join us.
Presenter:
David L Evans
Department of History
University of Connecticut
The History of Human Rights and Humanitarianism Colloquium is a space for interdisciplinary dialogue on issues that require perspectives and expertise from multiple fields. Contributors represent the fields of history, art history, literature, critical theory, philosophy, political theory, anthropology, sociology, and law.
2022 Malka Penn Award Ceremony
November 1, 2022
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
In-person with Livestream
Reception to Follow
The Malka Penn Award is given annually to the author of an outstanding children’s book addressing human rights issues or themes such as discrimination, equity, poverty, justice, war, peace, slavery or freedom. Named in honor of author Michele Palmer, who writes under the pseudonym Malka Penn, the award recognizes works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, or biography which are written for children from preschool to high school. Within these larger themes, the award committee is particularly eager to recognize stories about individuals – real or fictional, children or adults – who have been affected by social injustices, and who, by confronting them, have made a difference in their lives or the lives of others.
The 2022 Malka Penn Award will be presented to author Wade Hudson on November 1, 2022 in the Dodd Center for Human Rights. Hudson will speak about his career, the inspiration behind his memoir Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South, and the founding of his and wife Cheryl Hudson’s publishing outlet Just Us Books. Following the ceremony will be a reception with light refreshments, copies of the winning book available for purchase, and time reserved for book signings by the author.
Wade Hudson, author of Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South, founded Just Us Books in 1988 with Cheryl Willis Hudson. Wade serves as president and CEO of the company. His career as a writer spans more than three decades and has resulted in more than 25 published books for children and young adults. They include Book of Black Heroes from A to Z, Jamal’s Busy Day, Pass It On: African American Poetry for Children, Powerful Words: Two Years of Outstanding Writing by African Americans, the Great Black Heroes series, The Underground Railroad and The Two Tyrones.
Wade serves on a number of community boards and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and Pen America. He speaks around the country about issues of inclusion, empowering Black boys to succeed through literacy and other topics. He has received numerous honors for his contributions to children’s literature, including the Stephen Crane Literary Award, induction into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, the Harlem Book Fair Phyllis Wheatley Award (2007), the Ida B. Wells Institutional Leadership Award (2008) presented by the Center for Black Literature and the Madame C. J. Walker Legacy Award (2012) given by the Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Foundation. He is co-editor with his wife of the anthologies, We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, The Talk, Conversations About Race, Love & Truth and Recognize: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life. Kirkus Reviews called his recent coming-of-age memoir, Defiant, Growing up in the Jim Crow South a “powerful testimony from a children’s literature legend.”
We kindly ask that you register to attend to join us for the in-person ceremony.
In-person:
Ceremony: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Dodd Center for Human Rights – Konover Auditorium
Reception to Follow
Dodd Center for Human Rights – Lounge
Refreshments & Book Signing
Online:
Access to the livestream of the ceremony is available here from 5:00 pm November 1, 2022. Livestream
Upending Capitalism as We Know It? Public Policy Experimentation and Its Implications for Business
Thursday, October 13, 2022
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Hybrid Event
Dodd Center for Human Rights – Room 162 & Zoom
About This Workshop:
The Business and Human Rights Workshop is dedicated to the development and discussion of works-in-progress and other non-published academic research. Please register before the event for access to Professor Olsen’s paper.
Once thought to support democracy, contemporary global capitalism is contributing to its collapse. Despite the powerful systemic forces that propel it forward, though, citizens in many parts of the world are pushing back against systems that perpetuate climate change, corruption, and inequality. Simultaneously, innovative thinkers, alongside companies, citizen groups, and governments are experimenting to redress shortcomings in the status quo. Shifts in the way we define value (Mazzucato 2018), efforts to enact doughnut economies (Raworth 2017) or circular cities, and genuine corporate engagement (Knudsen and Moon 2017) each have important implications for a capitalism that is more supportive of democratic practice. In this paper we develop a framework that helps make sense of the varied implications such experiments have for business, trace how one successful experiment unfolded, and offer lessons it may hold for others. Doing so, we hope, will reinforce this trial, inspire others, and begin to help business leaders understand how they might engage in the various paths to a more democratic and prosperous future.
Prof. Tricia Olsen,
Daniels College of Business
University of Denver
Discussant:
Prof. Lyle Scruggs,
Department of Political Science
University of Connecticut
This workshop will be hosted both in-person and on Zoom. Please register regardless of the modality you wish to join. The workshop will not be recorded.
This event is hosted by the Business and Human Rights Initiative, a partnership between Dodd Human Rights Impact, the UConn School of Business, and the Human Rights Institute. It is co-sponsored by the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights in the Human Rights Institute.
The Shape of Justice: Spatializing Public Memory
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Dodd Center for Human Rights, Konover Auditorium
Members of MASS Design Group will speak on their transformative practice of “spatializing memory.” In projects such as The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Alabama) and the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial (Boston), MASS Design explores new ways to shift narratives, serve as a catalyst for truth-telling, and advance collective healing through the built environment.
Konover Auditorium
Dodd Center for Human Rights
Please register to join us.
Elena Baranes
Senior Designer, Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab, MASS Design Group
Brandon Bibby
Senior Architect, Public Memory and Memorial Lab, MASS Design Group
Morgan O’Hara
Manager, Advancement, Public Memory and Memorial Lab, MASS Design Group
Annie Wang
Senior Designer, MASS Design Group
Elena joined MASS in January of 2019. Her work with the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab and the Restorative Justice Design Lab focuses on engagement and design that elevates community voices. Her partnerships and projects seek to address the future of Indigenous sovereignty, healing through the arts and education, and decarceration. Prior to joining MASS, Elena worked as part of a Los Angeles-based design-build team. She received her Masters of Architecture from Yale School of Architecture and her Bachelor of Arts from Boston University.
Brandon Bibby AIA, ASID, NOMA, NCARB, WELL AP is a Senior Architect with MASS Design Group. Bibby joined MASS in 2021 as a Space and Society Fellow and currently works and manages research, engagement, and design across various Public Memory and Memorial Lab projects. Raised in the plains of Arkansas, where the Delta meets the Ozarks, Bibby is an artist, activist, and architect motivated by movement, culture, and familiarity in contemporary black and southern spaces. His work is rooted in preserving and developing architecture and dignified design in marginalized communities of color to address the lack of representation and access to equitable and quality design in the built environment. His diverse portfolio includes design, programming, and project management on over 100 preservation, arts, educational, commercial, and healthcare projects. Celebrated for his design leadership and community activism, Bibby was named a 2022 Ones To Watch Scholar with the American Society of Interior Design, recipient of the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal, and was named the Arkansas Business’ 20 in their 20s New Influential 2019 Class. He has lectured, and moderated panels with the American Institute of Architects, Architecture and Design Network, AARP, and currently serves as a Health Equity Advisor with the International Well Building Institute.
Morgan O’Hara is a cultural historian of cities and the built environment. She has worked at MASS Design Group since 2018, where she conducts research to support built projects and exhibitions, and crafts written work alongside strategy for business development. Her backgrounds in cultural research, public history, and collaborative design have informed her approach to socio-spatial research to develop human-centered histories of urban space and infrastructural systems. For the Fringe Cities project, Morgan conducted longitudinal analyses of small cities in the United States that participated in mid-century urban renewal, and while at the Hudson Valley Office, she was embedded in the public engagement work necessary to craft meaningful community design solutions in Poughkeepsie. Her passion lies in elevating creative and community-driven expressions of lesser-known histories in public space. Morgan studied anthropology at Reed College and graduated from Columbia with a Masters in Historic Preservation. She has served as co-faculty for Studio II in Historic Preservation at Columbia GSAPP since 2021.
Annie joined MASS in February of 2018 as a Design Associate and is currently working on a kindergarten in Vietnam and a health clinic in Texas. Before MASS, she worked at Peter Rose + Partners and AMO/OMA in Rotterdam where she conducted research for publications and editing. She received her Bachelor of Art in psychology and architecture from the University of Toronto and her Master of Architecture I from Harvard Graduate School of Design.
This event is sponsored by the Research Program on Arts & Human Rights.
The Research Program on Arts & Human Rights explores how the arts can promote the full exercise of human rights and the consolidation of a democratic culture. The arts not only make human rights visible. They also advance democratic thinking as they help us imagine new futures and open unique spaces for dialogue and debate, ushering us into novel modes of experience that provide concrete grounds for rethinking our relationship to one another. Thus, the arts can act as a powerful means of sustaining individual and collective reflection on human rights, and of linking individual and collective public experience, social belonging and citizenship.