In the News

Civic Engagement: Our Collective Responsibility to Participate in Democracy

Posted on by

Thursday, December 8, 2022
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Konover Auditorium
The Dodd Center for Human Rights 

Registration Now Closed

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

Posted on by

Wednesday, February 1, 2023
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
In Person and Online
Heritage Room – Homer Babbidge Library

Register Now

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

Posted on by

Tuesday, January 24, 2023
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Konover Auditorium
The Dodd Center for Human Rights 

Register Now

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.

Colloquium Series: Critical, Community-Engaged Medical Anthropology

Posted on by

October 17, 24, & 31, 2022
12:30pm – 1:45pm
In-person & online

Register Now

Join us for one or all lectures in this three-part series on “Critical, Community-Engaged Approaches in Medical Anthropology,” sponsored by the Research Program on Global Health and Human Rights. We invite participants to read the pre-circulated readings accessible here via the Homer Babbidge Library. Check below for details on the three events by experts in the field.

We kindly ask that you register to attend
regardless of the modality you will join.

Lunch will be served for in-person participants.

In-person:
Beach Hall – Room 404
UConn Department of Anthropology

Online:
Please register for Zoom details

Multi-gazed Ethnographies: Community Photographs and Narratives of the Heroin Epidemic in Colombia
Monday, October 17, 2022 | 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Camilo Ruiz (UConn, as of January 2023)

Activists/Scholars from Latin America at the Intersection of Medical Anthropology & Social Medicine
Monday, October 24, 2022 | 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
César Abadía-Barrero (UConn)

Grassroots Collaborative Ethnography & Archival Activism as Human Rights Research Strategies
Monday, October 31, 2022 | 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Katherine A. Mason (Brown University), Heather Wurtz (UConn & Brown), and Sarah Willen (UConn)

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Understanding the Effectiveness of State and Worker-Led Efforts to Combat Forced Labour in Supply Chains

Posted on by

Tuesday, November 1, 2022
12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Virtual Event

Register Now

The Business and Human Rights Workshop is dedicated to the development and discussion of works-in-progress and other non-published academic research. 

Multi-national corporations’ (MNCs) responsibility for human rights abuse within global supply chains, including forced labour, human trafficking and modern slavery is increasingly recognised in international standards including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, United Nations Global Compact, and the Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is mounting evidence that voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) mechanisms—such as supplier codes of conduct, ethical certification, and social auditing—widely relied upon to uphold human rights in supply chains are failing. In light of these failures, governments and worker organizations are pioneering alternatives, including home state legislation—through which the home states of MNCs introduce top-down requirements for more meaningful changes in corporate behaviour— and new legally binding transnational supply chain agreements called worker-driven social responsibility (WSR) initiatives, which exert bottom-up pressure to change commercial practices. There is considerable optimism that these twin developments are creating a new wave of regulation to address forced labour and overlapping abuses in global supply chains. How can we best study the effectiveness of these mechanisms and their interactions?

 Presenter:

Genevieve LeBaron
School of Public Policy
Simon Fraser University

Discussant:

Rachel Chambers
School of Business
University of Connecticut

This workshop will take place on Zoom and will not be recorded. Please register to attend.

This event is hosted by the Business & 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.

From Crisis to Activism: The Human Right to Adequate Food in the 1970s

Posted on by

Wednesday, November 9, 2022
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Dodd Center for Human Rights – Room 162

Register Now

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

Posted on by

November 1, 2022
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
In-person with Livestream
Reception to Follow

Register Now

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.

Author Wade HudsonWade 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

Evolving Landscapes of Human Rights

Posted on by

Celebrating 20 Years of Interdisciplinarity & Innovation

March 29-31, 2023 • Storrs, CT

Register Now

Evolving Landscapes of Human Rights

To celebrate the Human Rights Institute’s 20th anniversary, we are convening an international conference, showcasing the thematic foci of the Institute’s research and practice clusters.

This international conference will convene more than 40 speakers over the course of three days. Conference panels will address themes central to the work of the Institute’s research and practice clusters, including:

  • Right to health in Latin America
  • Memorialization, transitional justice, and human rights
  • Humanitarian narratives in the global south
  • History and future of war crimes prosecution
  • Human rights, science, and technology
  • Challenges and methodological approaches of monitoring and measuring human rights
  • Reflections on the US National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct
  • Supply chains disrupted: the social and environmental dimensions of reform

These panels cut distinct routes through the human rights terrain while remaining rooted in rigorous social science and humanities methods of inquiry. The discussions both reflect and celebrate the interdisciplinarity of HRI’s research programs and the innovative scholarship that have emerged from two decades of hosting conferences, workshops, and invited speakers across these domains. 

Founded in 2003, the Human Rights Institute has fostered an empirical and historical approach to human rights teaching and research that subjects universal moral values and legal rights to rigorous scrutiny. Today’s HRI is a vibrant intellectual community, with 15 core faculty members in 11 different departments, 3 post-doctoral fellows, and nearly 50 associated faculty across the University. It has ten established research clusters. HRI is also home to robust undergraduate and graduate programs, including  the first undergraduate major at a public research university, a university-wide graduate certificate program, and master of arts degree.

HRI has provided a fruitful site for convening for scholars across disciplines, instigating and supporting collaboration across conventional academic boundaries. Situated at the intersection of academic inquiry between the legal, social science, and humanities traditions, the University of Connecticut is a place where the promise and claims of human rights are interrogated through empirical research into institutions and processes, both global and local. Human rights are not simply academic subjects, however, and we seek to inform and shape policy decisions through our empirical investigations. 

This conference will continue its tradition, drawing scholars and practitioners from around the world to renew ongoing conversations and to inspire new ones about the latest challenges in the field.

All events will take place in the Konover Auditorium at The Dodd Center for Human Rights unless otherwise noted.

10:00 a.m. Opening remarks
10:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. History and Future of War Crimes Prosecution

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has precipitated a turning point in the international law of war crimes. In similar previous moments, new concepts and terms emerged to make sense of crimes and to prepare a path toward justice. “War crimes,” “crimes against humanity,” “genocide,” and “human rights” are examples of these earlier concepts. Recognizing the importance of historical context in establishing these precedents, what new concepts, what new language, can help make sense of crimes committed in twenty-first century warfare and contribute to securing justice?

 

Panelists: 

Predrag Dojčinović, Adjunct Professor and Research Affiliate, Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut

Emma Gilligan, Associate Professor of International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington

Nathaniel Raymond, Director, Humanitarian Research Lab, Yale University’s School of Public Health

Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow, Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University

 

Moderator: Sara Silverstein, Associate Professor of History, University of Connecticut

 
11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Supply Chains Disrupted: The Social and Environmental Dimensions of Reform

Global supply chains have experienced multiple recent and high-profile shocks, driven in part by labor shortages and transportation snares spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and by commodities shortfalls linked to the war in Ukraine. Beneath these disruptions are underlying problems including a lack of social protection floors for workers in multiple industries, and a lack of regulatory safeguards for new industries integral to contemporary supply networks (e.g., e-commerce and other elements of the digital economy). Panelists will explore problems and proposals for reform aimed at safeguarding the economic rights of workers while shoring up the social and environmental sustainability of global supply chains. 

 

Panelists: 

Tola Moeun, Executive Director, Center for Alliance of Labor & Human Rights in Cambodia 

Marina Colby, Senior Labor Advisor, USAID 

Mark Anner, Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, and Director of the Center for Global Workers’ Rights, Penn State University

Judy Gearhart, Senior Researcher, American University School of International Service

 

Moderator: Shareen Hertel, Professor of Political Science and Human Rights, University of Connecticut

 
1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Lunch, Student Union, 3rd Floor

 
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Russian Propaganda for War 

What is the character and function of Russian propaganda for war, and what concrete effects does it have on Russian popular opinion on the war? Has social media changed the terrain and meant that states can no longer control information as much as before? Can propagandists, publishers, and media owners be held accountable under international law for inciting war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide? This panel brings together experts in Russian media and international law to examine the legal and political implications of war propaganda.

 

Speakers:

Richard A. Wilson, Gladstein Distinguished Chair of Human Rights, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Law and Anthropology, University of Connecticut

Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow, Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University

Predrag Dojčinović, Adjunct Professor and Research Affiliate, Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut

 
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. A Legacy Without Limits Film Screening and Discussion 

A Legacy Without Limits celebrates the life and work of human rights scholar and advocate Wiktor Osiatyński, highlighting his key role in the founding and development of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut. Directed by UConn faculty member Catherine Masud, the film features interviews with Wiktor’s family and friends, as well as colleagues at UConn, Open Society Foundations, the Central European University, and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, each reflecting on the impact of Wiktor’s legacy and what it means for human rights today and in the future.

 

Respondents:

Ewa Woydyłło Osiatynska, Doctor of Clinical Psychology, Certified Family Counselor and Supervisor in Addiction Treatment

Natalia Osiatynska, Strategic Writer and Brand Naming Consultant

Maciej Nowicki, President, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

Małgorzata Szuleka, Secretary of the Board,  Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

Gary Gladstein, Founder, Marsha Lilien Gladstein Foundation

 

Moderator: Kathryn Libal, Director, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and Associate Professor, Social Work and Human Rights, University of Connecticut

 

Production credits: Director, Catherine Masud; Executive Producer, Kathryn Libal;  Post Production Producer, Sahil Laul; Archival Producer, Alex Branzell, Camera, Catherine Masud, Sahil Laul, Laurel Pehmoeller; Editing, Catherine Masud, Sahil Laul

 

All events will take place in the Konover Auditorium at The Dodd Center for Human Rights unless otherwise noted.

9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Global Health & the Right to Health: Critical Perspectives from Latin America

The intersection of Global Health and Human Rights has generated concepts, methods, and political debates, as well as legislation and programs. In official accounts, the importance of local activism, social movements, and regional trajectories in the history of global health and the right to health is often overshadowed by international organizations and foundations’ universalizing narratives of what human rights are and how to measure progress. In this panel, leading scholars and activists from Latin America will challenge these top-down accounts by sharing incredible conceptual, methodological and political contributions of subaltern proposals from Latin America. Panelists will not only shed light on the regional specificities of their struggles, but also show how this region is at the forefront of challenging Western perspectives on the right to health, for instance by proposing novel decommodified and pluriversal perspectives on the social determination of the health-disease-treatment process, intercultural health, and healthcare systems.

 

Panelists: 

Mario Hernández-Álvarez, Coordinator of the Doctoral Program on Public Health, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Alejandro Cerón-Valdes, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Denver

Erika Arteaga-Cruz, Professor, San Francisco de Quito University 

 

Moderator: César E. Abadía-Barrero, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Human Rights, University of Connecticut 

 
10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. The US National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct

On June 16, 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on behalf of the Biden-Harris Administration that the federal government would soon begin updating and revitalizing the United States’ National Action Plan (NAP) on Responsible Business Conduct. Interested parties were provided the opportunity to submit written comments for federal government agencies to consider in developing the NAP. Submissions from business, civil society, and academia were followed by informal consultations between these groups and the government in 2022. The United States published its first NAP in December 2016, one of about 30 countries throughout the world to have done so. The panel will consider the role of NAPs and how the NAP could and should take forward the business and human rights agenda in the United States.

 

Panelists: 

Jena Martin, Robert L. Shuman Professor of Law and Ethics, West Virginia University

Jordyn Arndt, Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

Eric Biel, Senior Advisor, Fair Labor Association; Adjunct Faculty, Georgetown Law

 

Moderator: Rachel Chambers, Assistant Professor of ​Business Law, University of Connecticut School of Business

 
12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Lunchtime Breakout Sessions, Student Union, 3rd Floor

 

Exploring a Human Rights-based Approach to Engineering

Engineering has profound implications for human societies, individuals, and the environment. Yet, the field’s traditional focus on shaping the physical and natural world has frequently underemphasized the social impacts of engineering practice. Human rights offer a specific framework for managing harm prevention and enhancing the social benefits of engineering. This breakout session will discuss the “Engineering for Human Rights” paradigm and showcase ongoing research and teaching efforts in this area at the University of Connecticut. Attendees will also have the opportunity to engage in a case study discussing the application of engineering ethics and Human rights to engineering work.

 

Presenters:

Davis Chacon-Hurtado, Assistant Research Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Human Rights, University of Connecticut

Shareen Hertel, Professor of Political Science and Human Rights, University of Connecticut

Genevieve Rigler, Ph.D. Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut

 

Engaging the Human Rights Archive at The Dodd Center for Human Rights

The Human Rights Collections within UConn Library’s Archives and Special Collections documents human rights and social justice struggles. This growing collection is a repository for materials invaluable to researchers and in the classroom. Presenters share insights into several collections related to war tribunals, genocide, children’s labor rights, rights to housing, and more. Attendees have an opportunity to think about how histories of human rights can be examined within this growing collection.

 

Presenters:

Catherine Masud, Assistant Professor in Residence, Digital Media and Design and Human Rights, University of Connecticut; Director, A Legacy Without Limits

Predrag Dojčinović, Adjunct Professor and Research Affiliate, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut

Fiona Vernal, Director of Engaged, Public, Oral, and Community Histories (EPOCH) and Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut

 

Alumni Experiences in the Human Rights Field

Human rights informs work in a range of professions. This breakout session draws upon the experiences of three UConn alum who share insights into how human rights matter in their work. Attendees will have a chance to engage the panelists and each other to discuss the diverse applications of human rights knowledge in practice at the community, state, national, or international levels.

 

Presenters:

Victor Schachter, Founder and President, The Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives

Jeff Smith, Founder and Director, Vanguard Africa; Producer, The Resistance Bureau

Johanna DeBari, Director of Workforce Equity and Training, Caring Health Center, Springfield, Massachusetts 

 
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Human Rights Measurement and Monitoring: Challenges and Methodological Approaches

In order to document and describe the extent of human rights conditions and abuses, advance our understanding of their causes and consequences, and inform policy and advocacy requires that we accurately and systematically observe and measure these phenomena. Because human rights abusers seek to obfuscate their actions and deny access to evidence, this is a tremendous challenge. The Human Rights Research and Data (HuRRD) Hub workshop session brings together scholars working on cutting edge techniques to improve and expand the measurement of human rights fulfillment and violations, as well as the institutional and policy approaches to prevent or address them, around the world. Panelists will explain the key challenges to human rights measurement and observation that their research aims to address, introduce their innovative methodological approaches to meeting these challenges, and discuss how their data can be used in human rights research, policy, and advocacy. Panelist presentations will lead to an open format discussion to 1) elicit critical feedback on the projects from the audience, 2) make these cutting edge methodological advances in human rights research accessible to the audience, and 3) identify present limitations in human rights measurement and the needs for innovation and future research to address these gaps.

 

Panelists: 

Rebecca Cordell, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Texas-Dallas

Chris Fariss, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan

Kelebogile Zvobgo, Assistant Professor of Government, William & Mary and Director, International Justice Lab

Skip Mark, Assistant Professor and Director, Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies, University of Rhode Island

 

Moderator: Mike Rubin, Assistant Research Professor, Human Rights, Engineering & Business and Director, Human Rights Research and Data Hub

 
3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Transforming Human Rights Education for Contentious Times

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “every individual and every organ of society…shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms” (1948). Since then, human rights education has evolved from a field that aims to raise awareness about respect for human rights to one through which a person or community has the potential to transform as a result of realizing human rights and one’s ability to influence positive social change. At the same time, scholars and practitioners have critiqued human rights and human rights education for privileging Western and Eurocentric contributions to the fields over non-Western knowledge, values, and perspectives. As a result, they have been engaged in the work of decolonizing human rights education. In this panel, leading human rights education scholars will draw on their decades of experience to reflect on the past and discuss how human rights education needs to continue to evolve at present to meet these contentious times. They will discuss how human rights education can address global challenges such as prejudice and discrimination, economic injustice, and the effects of the climate crisis, and examine how scholarship can inform practice to contend with the human rights challenges of today.  

 

Panelists: 

Audrey Osler, Professor Emerita of Human Rights Education and Citizenship, University of Leeds

Michalinos Zembylas, Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies, Open University of Cyprus

Andre´ Keet, Research Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Engagement and Transformation, Nelson Mandela University

 

Moderator: Sandra Sirota, Assistant Professor in Residence, Experiential Global Learning & Human Rights, University of Connecticut

 
4:30 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. Gladstein Visiting Professor Keynote Address: “Accountability and its Discontent – Between Hope and Despair”

Rashida Manjoo, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, and Professor Emerita, University of Cape Town

 

All events will take place in the Konover Auditorium at The Dodd Center for Human Rights unless otherwise noted.

9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Memorialization, Transitional Justice, and Human Rights

The power of memorialization is widely recognized as a form of symbolic reparation aimed at redressing social injustices in the aftermath of mass violence. Yet its potential to activate the connection between repair and social transformation remains underutilized in contexts of transitional justice and international human rights law. This panel unites memorialization practitioners with experts in international human rights law to address how we can integrate memorial practices into multilayered strategies for justice and social reconciliation.

 

Panelists: 

Diego García Sayán, former President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Sergio Beltrán García, Assistant Researcher, Forensic Architecture

Jha D Amazi, Principal, Co-Director, Public Memory & Memorials Lab, MASS Design Group

Claret Vargas, Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Justice & Accountability

 

Moderator: Robin Greeley, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art History, University of Connecticut 

 
10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Humanitarian Narratives in the Global South

This panel will reassess the narrative conventions surrounding human rights and humanitarianism as well as the responses they are presumed to evoke in readers and publics. Can appeals to empathy with human suffering or stories of traumatized refugees and witnesses to mass crimes still have a lasting and substantial impact in enlisting public support for human rights?  What role can literature play in identifying new narrative forms or alternative kinds of evidence, including historical evidence, to make sense of the current relationships between humanitarianism, human rights, and global economic inequality?

 

Panelists: 

Joseph R. Slaughter, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University

Yogita Goyal, Professor of English and African American Studies, University of California Los Angeles

Eleni Coundouriotis, Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Connecticut

Kerry Bystrom, Associate Dean, Bard College Berlin

 

Moderator: Sarah Winter, Professor of English and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Connecticut

 
12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Lunch, Wilbur Cross Reading Room
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Biomedical Technologies and Human Rights: Conceptual, Ethical and Legal Considerations

Emerging biomedical technologies, such as genetic engineering but also applications of artificial intelligence in medicine and healthcare, provide exciting new opportunities for improving human health and well-being. At the same time, they may create substantial ethical and legal challenges and the rapid pace of innovation makes responsible governance of these technologies increasingly complex. In this panel, we shall highlight some of the most pressing ethical and legal concerns and discuss possible approaches to more adaptive governance and regulation.

 

Panelists: 

Fruzsina Molnar-Gabor, Professor of Law and BioQuant, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences

Molly Land, Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law

Thomas Burri, Associate Professor of International and European Law, St. Gallen University, Switzerland

 

Moderator: Sebastian Wogenstein, Associate Professor of German Studies, University of Connecticut

 
3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Closing Celebration & Reception

 
8:00 p.m. Death and the Maiden, a co-production written by Ariel Dorfman, directed by Gary English, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, 802 Bolton Road, Storrs, CT 06269


Together with Connecticut Repertory Theatre, HRI co-sponsored the production of Death and the Maiden. Conference participants are invited to attend the production on Friday March 31, 2023. For more information and to purchase a ticket from the box office, visit Connecticut Repertory Theater’s website: https://crt.uconn.edu/  

 

Death and the Maiden deals with the conflict between justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of human rights abuses. After a chance meeting with her alleged attacker, Paulina Salas demands justice for past crimes on a personal level, which illustrates the difficulty of victims living within the same country as those who committed atrocities.

 

 

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Upending Capitalism as We Know It? Public Policy Experimentation and Its Implications for Business

Posted on by

Thursday, October 13, 2022
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Hybrid Event
Dodd Center for Human Rights – Room 162 & Zoom

Register Now

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.

Presenter:

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

Posted on by

Tuesday, October 25, 2022
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Dodd Center for Human Rights, Konover Auditorium

Register Now

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.