Thursday, April 21, 2022
12:30pm – 1:50pm
Virtual Event

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Presenter

Gary M. English,
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
UConn School of Fine Arts – Dramatic Arts

Host

Robin Greeley, Associate Professor of Art History

Panelists

Asif Majid, Assistant Professor, Dramatic Arts & Human Rights
Glenn Mitoma, Director, Dodd Impact
Sebastian Wogenstein, Associate Professor, German Studies

Join us for a presentation of research that develops a theoretical foundation and methodology for how theatre and human rights intersect, and demonstrates how various dramatic forms interrogate human rights questions from within the specific perspective of Theatre as a discipline. While human rights research and programming often employ the arts as “representations” of atrocities–abusive political, social and economic practices–this study focuses on the various types of dramatic form and structure as uniquely positioned to investigate important questions in human rights theory and practice. The use of Theatre will be positioned as a method of examination rather than emphasize the more limited, however important purposes the arts serve to raise consciousness or offer commentary that accompany other, often considered more primary, modes of analysis.

New for 2022, 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.

Our guiding concepts:

• Art makes visible human rights, and their violation, helping us combat injustice;
• Art strengthens mutual recognition, opening new spaces for dialogue and debate;
• Art forges new potential futures, helping us envision a more moral and just society.

This workshop will be hosted on Zoom. Please register to receive login information.

Tuesday, March 8, 2022
12:00pm – 2:00pm
Virtual Event

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About This Event:

Join us for a discussion on the escalating persecution of religious minorities, journalists, and human rights defenders currently under way in Russia. Over the past several years, Russian authorities have labeled Jehovah’s Witnesses as “extremist” organizations and used anti-extremism laws to launch a campaign of arrests, harassment, and intimidation. During this event, we’ll explore the history and current reality of this case of religious persecution and hear first-hand accounts from community members.

Dr. Zoe Knox of the University of Leicester will deliver the keynote address, followed by reflections from targeted members of the Russian Jehovah’s Witness community. Glenn Mitoma, Director of Dodd Impact, will moderate.

Keynote Speaker:

Zoe Knox is Associate Professor of Modern Russian History at the University of Leicester. Her research explores issues of religious tolerance and intolerance in the modern world, in Russia and beyond. Her publications include Russian Society and the Orthodox Church: Religion in Russia after Communism (Routledge, 2005); Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World: From the 1870s to the Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); and Voices of the Voiceless: Religion, Communism, and the Keston Archive (Baylor University Press, 2019), co-edited with J. deGraffenried.

Panelists:

Dmitri Antsybor, Kirill Kravchenko, & Aleksandr Tsvetkov

Moderator:

Glenn Mitoma, Director of Dodd Impact

This event is virtual and will be hosted on Zoom. Click the link above to register to attend. This event may be recorded.

Thursday, March 31, 2022
12:00pm – 1:15pm
Virtual Event

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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. Read below for the abstract of Prof. Jodi Short’s upcoming paper, the focus of this workshop. 

Many companies have adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in response to activist pressure, but ensuring the implementation of these policies is challenging. Recognizing the paucity of research on the effect of contentious activism on companies’ coupling of CSR policies and practices in the private politics and (de)coupling literatures, we posit that companies engage in “coupling compromises” when faced with such institutional pressure—improving their practices and more tightly coupling them with CSR policies in the domain contested by activists, but relaxing the coupling of policy and practice in competing CSR domains. Furthermore, we theorize that the nature and extent of coupling compromises can be explained by the interaction of activism with organizational structures that construct managerial perceptions of issue salience and internal frictions to change. We test our theory in the context of global supply chain factories’ compliance with CSR policies on working conditions when they face local worker activism. Analyzing 3,495 audits of 2,352 factories in 114 Chinese cities from 2012 to 2015, we find that worker activism over wages-and-benefits issues pushes factories to improve their wages-and-benefits practices and couple them more tightly with CSR policies, but these factories concurrently loosen the coupling between policy and practice in the domain of occupational health and safety. Both effects are stronger in factories with organizational structures that foreground the salience of wages and benefits issues and mitigate friction to changing organizational practices. These findings make significant contributions to the literatures on private politics, (de)coupling, and global supply chain labor practices.

Presenter:

Prof. Jodi Short, UC Hastings Law

Discussant:

Prof. Vivek Soundararajan, University of Bath

This event will not be recorded.

This event is sponsored by the Business and Human Rights Initiative, a partnership by Dodd Human Rights Impact, the UConn School of Business, & Human Rights Institute. 

You are warmly invited to take part in a series of interactive explorations of critical documents of American identity and their role in our lives today: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

This program aims to foster meaningful and informed discussion around the values that form the basis of our national experience by bringing the conversation back to first principles, to the founding of the American democratic experiment. In doing so, it encourages us to learn more about our shared history and to value and participate in our democracy. To participate, please register below.

The Declaration of Independence
Hosted by Democracy & Dialogues Initiative
Tuesday, March 22. 6:00-8:00 pm ET

Register in advance for this event:
https://uconn-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEuceGhrj0oHdGDL_I83vMxzxBLvd4Ay-iv

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the dialogue.

The Constitution
Hosted by the Old Connecticut State House
Tuesday, April 5. 6:00-8:00 pm ET

Register in advance for this event:
https://uconn-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvcOGoqDIjGdwOTaLCSltZQMhFIgxsYuWG

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the dialogue.

The Bill of Rights
Hosted by the Hartford Public Library
Tuesday, May 3. 6:00-8:00 pm ET

Register here for this event:
https://uconn-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqc-GqrDsoHdN1j6x8PHigbGDPXPz6Srxi

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the dialogue.

The Encounters Series is dedicated to fostering unexpected conversations around divisive issues and obscure knowledge. The program dives deeply into subjects that are of interest to the Greater Hartford community through facilitated, small-group dialogues followed by a question-and-answer style conversation with UConn faculty and community partners.

The Democracy & Dialogues Initiative is part of Dodd Human Rights Impact and supported by the Office of Global Affairs, the Office of the Provost, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Humanities Institute, UConn Extension, and the Division of Student Affairs’ Parent’s Fund.

Tuesday, March 22, 2022
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Hybrid Event

Environmental rights, such as the right to a healthy or clean environment, are experiencing increasing recognition within domestic constitutions as well as international human rights instruments and institutions. In parallel, more ecocentric approaches promote so-called rights of nature. Using methods of law and anthropology, this talk will assess to what extent such rights respond to environmental stress of local communities exposed, for instance, to large scale mining, hydro dams or climate change.

Dirk Hanschel studied law at the Universities of Marburg and Heidelberg, Germany, as well as the London School of Economics (LSE), before taking his doctoral/post-doctoral degrees at the University of Mannheim, Germany. He furthermore holds a Master of Comparative Law (Mannheim/Adelaide). After working as a reader at the University of Aberdeen for around two years, he became a professor of German, European and International Public Law at the University of Halle, Germany, in 2015. His research focuses inter alia on topics of environmental law and human rights, topics of comparative constitutional law (such as federalism), the law of international organizations, as well as law and anthropology. In 2019 he became a Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, where he conducts an interdisciplinary project on “Environmental Rights in Cultural Context”, together with a group of doctoral and post-doctoral scholars. In autumn 2021 he was appointed Martin Flynn Global Law Professor at UConn Law School.

The Colloquium is sponsored by the Human Rights Institute, the School of Law, and the Connecticut/Baden Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium.

This event is hybrid. We encourage you to join us in person or to join us by WebEx. It will be recorded.

Thursday, February 24, 2022
3:00pm – 4:30pm EST
Virtual Event

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About This Event:

In this month’s workshop, we feature the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), co-founded by Susan Randolph, Emerita Professor of Economics at UConn.

HRMI is a global collaborative venture between human rights practitioners, researchers, academics, and other supporters to measure performance on 13 key human rights metrics internationally. In this workshop, the HRMI team will provide an overview of the methodology underpinning their innovative metrics, demonstrate the rights tracker (a key tool of their impact strategy), and highlight several new endeavors.

Presenters:

Anne-Marie Brook, Co-Founder and Vision & Strategy Lead (based at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Institute in New Zealand)

Annie Watson, Children’s Rights Co-Lead (based at Middle Georgia State University)

Chad Clay, Co-Founder and Methodology Research and Design Lead (based at University of Georgia)

Elizabeth Kaletski, Children’s Rights Co-Lead (based at Ithaca College)

Matt Rains, Civil and Political Rights Lead (based at University of Georgia)

Stephen Bagwell, Economic and Social Rights Team (based at University of Missouri-St. Louis)

Susan Randolph, Co-founder and Economic and Social Rights Lead (based in Connecticut and Oregon

This event is virtual and will be hosted on Zoom. Click the link above to register to attend. The workshop will be recorded.

This event is sponsored by the Human Rights Research and Data Hub (HuRRD) at the Human Rights Institute. The Hub seeks to advance human rights research at UConn by supporting faculty and student projects and providing students the opportunity to develop research and data analysis skills that will advance their careers after graduation.

Thursday, March 10, 2022
12:00pm – 1:15pm
Virtual Event

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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. Read below for the abstract of Prof. Sara Seck’s upcoming paper, the focus of this workshop. The full paper is available to view and download below in advance of the workshop.

According to the United Nations, the world is facing a triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature (biodiversity) loss, and pollution and waste, with the most egregious consequences felt by those least responsible. These crises are also intertwined: nature-based solutions are promoted as climate change solutions even as heat domes fuel forest fires; extraction of minerals for green energy solutions negatively impacts biodiversity and creates pollution and waste; and carbon major companies are also among the largest producers of plastic pollution. International human rights law is increasingly grappling with environmental rights and responsibilities, as evidenced by the work of special rapporteurs on the environment and on toxic substances, among others. This paper will consider how business and human rights instruments could help to guide solutions to triple planetary crisis that are attentive to the need to reduce overconsumption by the rich while supporting equity and resilience of those most vulnerable to planetary crisis.

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Presenter:

Prof. Sara Seck, Dalhousie University

Discussant:

Prof. Chiara Macchi, Wageningen University

This event will not be recorded.

This event is sponsored by the Business and Human Rights Initiative, a partnership founded by Dodd Human Rights Impact, the UConn School of Business, and the Human Rights Institute. 

Friday, March 4, 2022
12:30pm – 2:00pm
Virtual Event

Register Now

About This Event:

In the second meeting of the Economic & Social Rights Group for Spring 2022, we welcome Jackie Smith, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Smith will discuss a new white paper, Pittsburgh’s Affordable Housing Crisis: Is Privatization the Solution?, which she wrote with colleagues involved in Pittsburgh’s Human Rights City Alliance. She will discuss how the project emerged from the work of a diverse alliance of human rights organizers and how it contributes to ongoing local and translocal movement-building to advance housing as a human right. It also demonstrates important roles for networks of university- and neighborhood-based activists to play in advancing human rights in cities and communities. The white paper is available to read here, courtesy of Smith and her colleagues.

Presenter:

Jackie Smith’s research focuses on how globalization impacts people and communities, and how social movements for the environment, health, and economic justice have advanced transformative struggles. She has documented long-term trends in transnational social movement organizations and coalitions, in addition to research on connections between global politics and activism in cities and communities. Smith is currently engaged in participatory research with Pittsburgh and with national human rights organizers and engaged in work to connect municipalities with United Nations human rights work.

This event is virtual and will be hosted on Zoom. Click the link above to register to attend. The event will be recorded.

The Economic & Social Rights Group (ESRG) is an interdisciplinary monthly gathering of faculty and graduate students who meet to share ongoing research and to discuss current scholarship around economic and social rights. It is the central to the mission of the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights.

The Research Program on Economic & Social Rights brings more than a dozen UConn faculty together with over 30 affiliated scholars from across the United States and Canada. Together, we have generated numerous graduate and undergraduate courses, several edited volumes, multiple co-authored articles, and the National Science Foundation-funded Socio-Economic Rights Fulfillment Index (SERF Index).

Friday, February 18, 2022
12:00pm – 1:30pm
Virtual Event

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Presenter:

Bi Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Whitworth University. She specializes in international relations and methodology, with a substantive focus on democratic legitimacy in global governance, non-state actors, and international environmental politics.

About this Event:

In the first of three Economic & Social Rights Group events planned for this spring, Dr. Bi Zhao will present her research entitled “Resist or embrace: environmental human rights advocacy at international human rights organizations.”

–Prakash Kashwan & Shareen Hertel (ESRG Co-Directors)

This event is virtual and will be hosted on Zoom. Click the link above to register to attend. The event will be recorded.

The Economic & Social Rights Group (ESRG) is an interdisciplinary monthly gathering of faculty and graduate students who meet to share ongoing research and to discuss current scholarship around economic and social rights. It is the central to the mission of the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights.

The Research Program on Economic & Social Rights brings more than a dozen UConn faculty together with over 30 affiliated scholars from across the United States and Canada. Together, we have generated numerous graduate and undergraduate courses, several edited volumes, multiple co-authored articles, and the National Science Foundation-funded Socio-Economic Rights Fulfillment Index (SERF Index).

Wednesday, February 16, 2022
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Virtual Event

Register Now

Presenters:

Zehra Arat is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at UConn. She studies human rights, with an emphasis on women’s rights, as well as processes of democratization, globalization, and development.

Shareen Hertel is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at UConn, jointly appointed with the Human Rights Institute. Her research focuses on changes in transnational human rights advocacy, with a focus on labor and economic rights issues.

Overview:

For this February edition of the HRI Colloquium Series, we will consider NGO-Scholar Engagement, the topic of an upcoming paper from Zehra Arat & Shareen Hertel.

Abstract:

For a sneak preview of their talk, here is the abstract of their forthcoming work: “For many human rights scholars, human rights is more than intellectual curiosity; it is the motivation for their work. They try to use their research and expertise to improve human rights conditions and work with policy makers and advocacy groups. This paper explores the complexities of partnerships between scholars and human rights organizations and groups (HROGs). Focusing primarily on the experience of social science and humanities scholars with a range of HROGs, we identify areas of tension, as well as the political implications of such engagement. The paper thus marks a critical step toward developing a more formal typology of such relationships that can be used to further explore variation in human rights outcomes stemming from such collaboration.”

This event is virtual and will be hosted on Zoom. Click the link above to register to attend. The Colloquium will be recorded.