Mission
The Research Program on Economic and Social Rights brings more than a dozen UConn faculty together with over 30 affiliated scholars from across the globe. 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).
Research
Economic and Social Rights Group (ESRG)
The centerpiece of our program is this interdisciplinary monthly gathering of faculty and graduate students who meet to share ongoing research and to discuss current scholarship around economic and social rights. In addition to monthly meetings, we produce the Economic Rights Working Paper Series, hold an annual thematically-oriented, one-day workshop with our affiliated members, and host an annual public lecture by a leading figure in the field. Past speakers include Philip Alston and Immanuel Wallerstein.
Economic Rights Working Paper Series
The purpose of the series is to foster and promote research in the re-emerging area of economic rights. The series aims to be the clearinghouse for research in economic rights. It will be continuously updated. Typically, working papers in the series represent work in progress on any topic of economic rights and from any field. Published articles may also be included as a convenient way for scholars to access up-to-date research in their area of interest. In all cases the copyrights for the papers included in the series remain with the author or, if previously published, with the author and/or publisher. Those interested in submitting papers to the series should contact Derek Johnson at derek.johnson@uconn.edu. Access the working paper series online.
Education
At UConn, we have built a diverse curriculum on economic rights at the graduate and undergraduate levels for over two decades. Themed courses are integral to a University-wide Graduate Certificate in Human Rights that can be earned by graduate students in doctoral programs and professional schools across multiple disciplines and fields. These economic rights-focused courses are also open to students in our Master’s in Human Rights degree program. At the undergraduate level, students can take a range of courses that engage economic rights both theoretically and empirically.
Select Course Highlights
Economic Rights
HRTS 5390: This graduate seminar explores the conceptual bases, measurement, and policy applications of economic rights, drawing on a range of literature across disciplines and grounded in empirical methods spanning qualitative and quantitative approaches. Organized around a series of classic and contemporary scholarly readings spanning multiple disciplines along with contemporary policy documents, the course engages grad students in developing a semester-long independent research paper which is in turn presented during a final in-class conference.
Politics & Human Rights in Global Supply Chains
POLS/HRTS 3256(W): Political and human rights implications of regulating contemporary global supply chains: official regulatory frameworks; non-regulatory approaches to rule-making (such as voluntary corporate codes of conduct and industry standards); social responses to the dilemmas of “ethical” sourcing of goods and services.
Human Rights & Social Work
HRTS/SWOK 2160/5160: An examination of the relationship between social work and human rights, with emphasis on applying international human rights principles to practice. Topics include the international human rights system, social work’s role in promoting rights, and analysis of social problems affecting women, children, immigrants, refugees, and other groups facing systemic barriers. U.S. case studies illustrate how social workers and allied professionals can advocate for and uphold human rights in their work.
Economic Development & Human Rights
HRTS 3475: Microeconomics of economic development and human rights. Impacts of human capital, health, education, on well-being and poverty.
Public Engagement
SERF Index
SERF Scores countries’ performance on fulfilling social and economic rights on a yearly basis. SERF is unique in that it considers not only the extent to which citizens enjoy these rights, but also the extent to which the government complies with its duty to progressively realize these rights with available resources. SERF has yielded award-winning research, graduate training, and data-driven policymaking, and is part of the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI). Read more about the SERF Index.
Our Community
The Economic & Social Rights Program has a rich history of cultivating scholars and practitioners whose work concerns issues of poverty, inequality, environmental justice, and other challenges at the heart of human wellbeing. Read more about how we’ve grown in UConn Today.
Our Network
Imge Akaslan
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
Business and Human Rights, Global Supply Chains
Catherine Albisa
Race Forward
Constitutional and Human Rights Law
Radhika Balakrishnan
Rutgers University
Gender; Development; Budgetary Analysis
Kristy A. Belton
Consultant
Economic Rights
Salil Benegal
Union Collegee
Environmental Rights; Inequality
Lea Bishop
Indiana University McKinney School of Law
Right to Science and Culture
Catherine Buerger
Dangerous Speech Project
Human Rights Education; Activism
Benjamin Carbonetti
Trinity College
State Capacity; Repression
Christina Chiarelli-Helminiak
West Chester University
Burnout; Human Rights Education
Chad Clay
University of Georgia
Labor Rights; Human Rights Measurement
Allison Corkery
Center for Economic & Social Rights
Economic and Social Rights; Methodology
Diane F. Frey
San Francisco State University
International Labor Standards; Right to Decent Work; Union Rights
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
The New School
Human Rights Measurement; Global Financing
Carlos Garcia-Quijano
University of Rhode Island
Human Well-being; Human Ecology; Coastal Livelihoods
Michael Goodhart
University of Pittsburgh
Democracy; Globalization
Mark Gibney
University of North Carolina- Asheville
Extraterritorial Obligations
Madri Hall-Faul
University of Kentucky College of Social Work
Devolution, social welfare policy, cash assistance
Philip Harvey
Rutgers University
Right to Employment; Labor Rights
Patrick Heidkamp
Southern Connecticut State University
Economic Geography; Globalization
Richard Hiskes
Grand Valley State University
Economic Rights; Environmental Rights
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann
Wilfrid Laurier University
Right to Food; Economic Rights
Chris Jeffords
Villanova University
Environmental Human Rights; Environmental Economics
Elizabeth Kaletski
Ithaca College
Economic Development; Labor Rights; Child Labor
Prakash Kashwan
Brandeis University
Environmental Policy; Global Climate Governance
Konstantinos (Kostas) Koutsioumpas
Independent Researcher
Right to Sport; Physical Activity and Play
Hilda Llorens
University of Rhode Island
Environmental justice; Afro-Caribbean Ecologies; Latinx Environmentalisms
Gillian MacNaughton
Social and Economic Rights Associates
Right to Health; Right to Decent Work
Brendan Mark
University of Rhode Island
Political Economy; Collective Dissent
Leslie Marshall
Director, SFPE Foundation
Corporate Social Responsibility
Ken Neubeck
UConn Emeritus
Economic Rights; Welfare Policies
Swayam Sampurna Panigrahi
Krea University, India
Supply chains & human rights ; Social sustainability of supply chains
Nishith Prakash
Northeastern University
Development; Political Economy
Sanjay Reddy
The New School
Political Economy; Development
Ana María Sánchez Rodríguez
Maynooth University
Discrimination; International Development
Shawna Sweeney
Consultant
Women’s Economic Rights; Measurement
Corinne Tagliarina
SUNY Morrisville
Right to Water, Laws and Policy
Rachel Wahl
University of Virginia Curry School of Education
Human Rights Education
Daniel J. Whelan
Hendrix College
History of Human Rights
Inga Winkler
Central European University, Department of Legal Studies
Global Justice; Right to Sanitation
Katharine G. Young
Boston College
Comparative Constitutional Law; Judicial Review
Christian Zimmermann
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Redistribution; Unemployment
Join the Listserv
If you are interested in receiving email announcements for our events, visit the ESRG listserv page to enroll. Click the three lines on the top right of the page to subscribe to our list. You can return to the same site in the future to change your email address or unsubscribe. Members of the list include graduate students, staff members, faculty members, and visitors to the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute. The list is moderated by a faculty member in the program. To send e-mails to the listserv, simply send your email to uconn_esrg-l@listserv.uconn.edu. To prevent SPAM, the system will ask you to confirm that you have submitted your email.
Events
Upcoming Events
-
Sep21Communicating to Build Support for Economic Rights With the U.S. Public: Actionable Insights From Communications ResearchThe Dodd Center for Human Rights12:15 PM
What does communication science tell us about how to build support for economic rights? This session will dive into the work of the Center for Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida and the resulting practical communication strategies that emerged across a variety of economic rights topics.
News
-
A partnership between Connecticut and Baden-Württemberg bears fruit in scholarship and engagement
-
Human Rights and Political Science professor builds ethical supply chains at UConn and beyond
-
‘UConn has established itself as one of the premier institutions in the country in the area of human rights and ethical sourcing’
-
UConn’s Human Rights Institute has steadily built a Program on Economic & Social Rights that influences global scholarly and policy work on issue of poverty, inequality, environmental justice, and other challenges at the heart of human wellbeing.
