About the Film

Speakers

Catherine Masud is an award-winning filmmaker and an Assistant Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Digital Media and Design and the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.

Stephen Bingham, the protagonist of A Double Life, has dedicated his legal career to providing support and advocacy on behalf of the marginalized and disenfranchised.

Luca Falciola is a lecturer in history at Columbia University and the author of Up Against the Law: Radical Lawyers and Social Movements 1960s-1970s.

Sponsors

This event is supported by the Human Rights Film & Digital Media Initiative, a collaborative venture between the Department of Digital Media & Design and the Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs at the Gladstein Family Human Rights, as well as the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages and the Humanities Institute.

About This Event

Are our buildings ethically sourced, as well as sustainably designed? This is the question at the core of Design for Freedom, the movement led by Grace Farms to eliminate forced and child labor from the building materials supply chain. As we confront the climate crisis, we must approach sustainable solutions that address the human suffering endured in the making of building materials, as well as the damage being done to the environment in the process.

This event explores ways in which companies and communities can work together to drive human rights-respecting market transformation and address the challenges and opportunities of ethical decarbonization in the construction sector.

Reception

Following the event, please join us for a catered reception in the Dodd Lounge.

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Our Speakers

Sharon Prince is the CEO and Founder of Grace Farms Foundation. Prince commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning SANAA architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa to design Grace Farms, which has become widely known as a global humanitarian and cultural center located in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The Foundation’s interdisciplinary humanitarian mission is to pursue peace through nature, arts, justice, community, faith, and Design for Freedom, a new movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain.

Since opening, Grace Farms has garnered numerous prestigious awards for contributions to architecture, environmental sustainability, and social good, including the AIA National 2017 Architecture Honor Award and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize.

For her work launching Design for Freedom, Prince was recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business 2022 for “cleaning up construction” and the AIA NY and Center for Architecture recognized her with the NYC Visionary Award.

Nora Rizzo is the first Ethical Materials Director of Grace Farms Foundation, focusing on the Design for Freedom movement. She serves as Ethical Material Advisor on Design for Freedom Pilot Projects and led the development of the Design for Freedom Toolkit.

She previously spent over a decade as Director of Sustainability for Fusco Corporation and has dedicated more than 15 years to creating change in the built environment through her sustainability and social equity work. She is on the Board of Directors for mindful MATERIALS and the CT Green Building Council.

Anna Dyson is the Hines Professor of Architecture, with an appointment in the School of Environment (YSE) at Yale University. She teaches design, technology, and theory at the School of Architecture. At Yale, Anna has also founded a new research entity titled CEA - Center for Ecosystems in Architecture. CEA is a joint initiative between the Yale Schools of Architecture, Forestry & Environmental Studies to unite researchers across multiple fields to develop transformative systems for the Built Environment. CEA supports Masters and PhD level students as well as professional researchers towards the invention and development of building systems that metabolize energy, water and materials while supporting biodiverse ecosystems. CEA has its central think tank within the heart of Yale University in New Haven. Dyson was previously the Founding Director of CASE, The Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE) in 2007 which hosts the Graduate Program in Architectural Sciences / Built Ecologies. 

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Sponsors

This event is supported by the Business & Human Rights Initiative, Economic & Social Rights Program, and Engineering for Human Rights Initiative at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, as well as the Grace Farms Foundation.

Lunch will be served. Please register below to join us.

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About Art Heals

Art Heals began in Nepal and will soon release findings from research in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal, followed by hundreds of aftershocks that have led to physical destruction, loss, and negative mental health outcomes. Yet, in the days, months, and years following the disaster, numerous forms of community art rose from the rubble, such as urban murals, spoken-word poetry, public dance performances, and sacred art. In this creative project, we explored the relationship between community art and health in post-earthquake Nepal. We utilized photography to capture a range of unique artworks that were created in the aftermath of the earthquakes and conducted in-depth interviews with artists and experts, including art therapists and gallery owners. 

About the Speaker

Sara Baumann, an Assistant Professor in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, is a mixed methods global health researcher. She is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Global Women’s Health Research (GLOWHER) collective, and affiliated faculty of the Center for Women’s Health Research and Innovation, Asian Studies Center, and Concept Mapping Institute at Pitt. Her primary research interests encompass three cross-cutting domains: 1) the innovative application of participatory, arts-based, and visual research methodologies; 2) women’s and adolescent reproductive health, and 3) mental health. Her research using arts-based and embodied tools is characterized by a commitment to community-engaged methods, a transformative research paradigm, and is guided by principles of design justice.

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Sponsors

This talk is supported by the Research Program on Global Health & Human Rights at The Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.

Over the last 75 years, debates in the human rights field have largely focused on specifying the content and legal implication of rights. This talk will suggest that, in the next 75 years, scholars and practitioners will be debating the other component of the term: What does it mean to be a human –or, more broadly, a legal person? In other words, the question about the who will be as important as question about the what of human rights. Based on research and advocacy on rights of nature around the world, Rodríguez-Garavito proposes the idea of “more-than-human (MOTH) rights” in order to capture the ongoing ecocentric turn in the field and the growing interest in extending rights to the more-than-human world.

About the Speaker

César Rodríguez-Garavito is Professor of Clinical Law and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Open Global Rights, and the Founding Director of the More-Than-Human Rights and the Future of Rights and Governance (FORGE) programs at NYU Law. He has published widely on international human rights, climate litigation, comparative constitutionalism, and Indigenous rights. His most recent book is “Litigating the Climate Emergency: How Courts, Human Rights, and Legal Mobilization Can Bolster Climate Action” (ed., Cambridge University Press, 2022).

This is an Honors Event. See tags below for categories. #UHLevent10824

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Sponsors

This event is sponsored by the Connecticut / Baden-Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium (HRRC), a collaborative group that provides an international, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional platform to promote and support academic collaboration between researchers and research groups at universities and other research institutions in the State of Connecticut (USA) and the Land Baden-Württemberg (Germany).

HRRC is supported by the Office of Global Affairs and the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut, as well as the Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts for the state of Baden-Württemberg.

About This Event

How can we find balance when we are on opposite sides? Can we build spaces for listening and equality?

Künü, a film by Mapuche filmmaker Francisco Huichaqueo Pérez in collaboration with the Association of Mapuche Communities of Loncoche-Chile, captures the collaborative efforts of 80 Mapuche communities to reclaim part of their ancestral lands from a large transnational forestry company in the Araucanía-Loncoche region of Chile. Künü documents the creation of a space for difficult dialogue between groups with a long history of mistrust and power imbalances, centering the perspective of the local Mapuche communities as they work to exercise ancestral and political self-determination.

Trailer

Production

Produced by Imaginaria Audiovisual
Director: Francisco Huichaqueo Pérez
Screenplay: Francisco Toro Lessen and Francisco Huichaqueo Pérez
Production: Ramón Ávila
Photography: Jorge Aguilar and Francisco Toro Lessen
Sound: Pablo Pinochet
Editing: Francisco Toro Lessen and Francisco Huichaqueo Pérez
Music: Alvaro del Canto

About Francisco Huichaqueo Pérez

Francisco Huichaqueo Pérez is a Mapuche filmmaker, artist, curator, and a professor at the School of Visual Arts of the University of Concepción. His films have been showcased in various Chilean and international venues, including the Mother Tongue Film Festival at the Smithsonian, ImagineNATIVE in Toronto, Museo Reina Sofía, and the 11th Berlin Biennale. His video installation, documentary film, and essay films center on his Mapuche lineage and the Mapuche worldview. He also intervenes in colonial spaces with tangible and intangible heritage, such as archaeological collections in museums within Chile and abroad.

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This event is sponsored by the Research Program on Global Health & Human Rights and the Research Program on Arts & Human Rights at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, as well as the Buen Vivir & Collective Healings Initiative, El Instituto, the Departments of Anthropology and Digital Media & Design, Native American & Indigenous Studies, and Native American Cultural Programs.

Every individual has different ideas when they hear the word Patriotism. It can fill us with a powerful feeling of pride, or a strong sense of civic responsibility. Some might feel suspicious and wary of the concept, seeing it as a way of creating political division. Others might not feel anything at all, thinking it an outdated concept in a modern, globalized society. As the world around us becomes more divided, so too does the idea of patriotism. But what does it mean to be a patriot? Has patriotism really outlived its usefulness? What does patriotism look like today? And can it be used to bring us together?

Join us for an informed and collaborative exploration of these critical and fascinating questions! Encounters programs dive deep into subjects through facilitated, small-group dialogues followed by a question-and-answer style conversation with our UConn faculty and community partners. Resources are provided beforehand to encourage informed and informal dialogue. The aim is to develop a forum for respectful and challenging dialogue, followed by a communal meal and coffee.

This event is hosted by the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative and Connecticut’s Old State House.

Lunch will be served. Please register below to join us in person.

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About This Talk

In recent years, we have witnessed a major shift in how corporate stakeholders—investors, shareholders, employees, consumers, communities—understand the content of responsible business conduct. The legal landscape is rapidly evolving with the adoption of new hard law in the EU and its Member States, which requires large businesses to conduct ongoing, risk-based, human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) throughout their supply chains, as well as trade sanctions regimes that push companies to carry out more and better due diligence in their supply chains to ensure that the goods they want to bring into and sell in the US and EU are not made with forced labor.

Contracts can play a critical role in supporting more robust HREDD processes, making the commitment to HREDD between buyers and suppliers across the supply chain legally binding, and facilitating the flow of information between the contracting parties and across the supply chain. That information can be used for multiple purposes, including to better equip portfolio companies to conduct comprehensive HREDD and prevent adverse human rights and environmental (HRE) impacts, address inquiries from regulators, report on non-financial performance, and to provide more effective HRE remediation, when/as needed.

With HRE performance becoming an increasingly important component of companies’ financial performance, investors are understandably interested in learning more about how to engage with portfolio companies to achieve better HRE outcomes. We will discuss the role of HREDD-aligned contracts in helping investors evaluate potential risks to a target company’s or existing portfolio company’s HRE performance when making investment and divestment or sale decisions.

Download the Investor Guide on Responsible Contracting

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About The Speakers

Chavi Keeney Nana is the director of the Equitable Global Supply Chain program at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. She is also a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School and a US Legal Advisor for the Responsible Contracting Project. She teaches anticorruption law and business and human rights, and supervises students in the Human Trafficking Clinic and Business and Human Rights Lab.

Sarah Dadush’s research lies at the intersection of business and human rights. Her scholarship explores various legal mechanisms for improving the social and environmental performance of multinational corporations. She is the founding Director of the Rutgers Law School’s Business & Human Rights Law Program and the Responsible Contracting Project (RCP), the mission of which is to improve human rights in global supply chains through innovative contracting practices.

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Sponsors

This event is supported by the Business & Human Rights Initiative and Economic & Social Rights Program at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.

About the Workshop

This workshop offers UConn graduate students a unique opportunity to learn about human rights practice from Charlie Clements, a notable human rights campaigner/practitioner on the global stage. Using examples from his lifetime of experience and achievement, Charlie will discuss what it takes to start and maintain a successful social movement, with an emphasis on having dialogue with students about how to turn these lessons into future successes in their own human rights work. 

About the Facilitator

As President of Physicians for Human Rights, Charlie Clements, MD, MPH was a key member of the coalition that produced the international treaty to ban landmines that won the Nobel Peace Prize. As a medical practitioner during the civil wars in Central America in the 1980s, Charlie inspired an Oscar-winning documentary about his work. Clements has also served as the Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School

Lunch will be served. Please register below.

Have a food allergy we should be aware of? Let us know in the comments of your registration. 

. This event is co-sponsored by UConn’s Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, the UConn Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, and the UConn Department of History.

Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute). 

Abstract

The concept of human rights due diligence is a means to help companies identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts on society. Recent years have seen the enactment of laws mandating companies to undertake human rights due diligence and ongoing debate about how this concept can be most effectively applied in different business contexts. This workshop features two UConn Honors thesis research projects exploring different dimensions of this phenomenon.

Lunch will be provided. Please register below.

Presenters

Meaghan Murphy, Human Rights & Economics ’24, University of Connecticut

Sophie Lemire, Human Rights & Economics ’24, University of Connecticut

Discussants

Rachel Chambers, University of Connecticut

Shareen Hertel, University of Connecticut

Markus Krajewski, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg

Janne Mende, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Sponsors

This event is co-sponsored by the Business & Human Rights Initiative (BHRI), a partnership founded by Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs, the UConn School of Business, and the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.

This is an Honors Event. See tags below for categories. #UHLevent10818

Lunch will be served. Please register below to join us.

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About the Workshop

In her presentation, Elizabeth Carpenter-Song draws upon longitudinal ethnographic research centered on housing precarity and mental health among families in rural New England. Over time, she observes oscillating rhythms of stability and instability within families as they face persistent threats to their housing security, grapple with making ends meet on service sector wages, and encounter isolation and stigma within rural communities. Carpenter-Song delves into the lived experiences of families navigating fundamental insecurity, contending that various factors unique to rural New England—such as limited affordable housing options, geographic and social isolation, and cultural ideals of self-sufficiency—converge to hinder families’ prospects despite their continuous efforts to thrive in this environment.

Against the backdrop of fundamental insecurity, families interact with a diverse array of health and social services to address their basic survival needs and promote their families’ well-being. Carpenter-Song examines the unintended repercussions of “parenting in public” (Friedman, 2000) within institutional settings, shedding light on how healthcare and social services can inadvertently contribute to surveillance and harm for impoverished parents. By attuning to families’ lived experiences, Carpenter-Song underscores anthropology’s capacity to elucidate experiences of hardship, document systemic shortcomings in supporting families, and propose avenues for substantive changes in both practice and policy.

About the Speaker

Elizabeth Carpenter-Song, Ph.D. is a medical and psychological anthropologist at Dartmouth College. Her research strives to center the lived experiences of rural community members marginalized by poverty, housing insecurity, mental illness, and substance use. Through ethnographic methods, she engages with people and communities to learn about lived experiences of illness, suffering, and experiences navigating through complex landscapes of care. In partnership with people with lived experience, direct service providers, and researchers, she aims to translate insights from close attention to families’ lived experiences in rural New England into actionable recommendations for change to improve health and wellbeing in the region.

Read Elizabeth Carpenter-Song’s open-source book Families on the Edge: Experiences of Homelessness and Care in Rural New England.

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Sponsors

This workshop is supported by the Research Program on Global Health & Human Rights at The Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute in collaboration with the Departments of Anthropology and Human Development & Family Sciences. 

Featured works include the following:

Films:

The Memory Keepers - 12 minutes
Created by Aida Gradascevic, Katie McCluney, Ashten Vassar, Jared Linder, and Evgeniia Rein.

The Rupture - 10 minutes
Created by Jonathan Kopeliovich.

Website Exhibits:

Family Bonds Through Time
Created by Mary McGaffigan.

Presentation of Memory and Family Through Jewelry Archives
Created by Grace Pereira Lopes.

Armenian Genocide: Future Generations
Created by Nayeli Contreras.

PARKING: The closest available visitor parking is in South Garage (2366 Jim Calhoun Way, Storrs, CT 06269). Accessible parking is available in employee and student commuter lots after 5 PM without permit. There are also accessible parking spaces located within the North Garage (2152 Hillside Rd, Storrs, CT 06268). For more parking information, visit UConn Parking Services.

Volunteer to facilitate “UConn Strong: A Dialogue on Mental Health & Resilience” on April 17, 2024 from 3:30-5:30 pm. Utilizing the Encounters dialogue model, we hope to cultivate a supportive and encouraging space in which voices can be heard, and perspectives on mental health & wellness, and resilience shared.

Encounters provides tools to help navigate complex and challenging conversations that can often be polarizing. Facilitators play a crucial role in ensuring the success of these dialogues by guiding small breakout tables and fostering productive exchanges. They ensure that conversations remain respectful, inclusive, and productive. Facilitators help maintain ground rules for discussion, encourage participation from all attendees, and manage time effectively.

Facilitator preparation will take place on April 17, 2024, from 12 pm-1 pm in The Dodd Center Lounge. A light lunch will be provided.

This dialogue is convened by the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative Student Fellows in collaboration with Student Health & Wellness and the Dean of Students Office, as part of the University’s Metanoia programming.

About Angélica Giménez

Angélica Giménez is a Ph.D. student in Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the history of Latin American Jewry, particularly in Argentina. She wrote her master’s thesis on Jewish responses to the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and is currently working on her dissertation project, which explores the role of American Rabbi Marshall Meyer in the fight for human rights during Argentina’s Dirty War. Her interests also encompass the memory of the Holocaust, Israeli history, and Argentine-Jewish literature and popular culture.

Lunch will be served alongside the talk.

About the Human Rights Graduate Research Forum

The Human Rights Graduate Research Forum provides an opportunity for graduate students in any discipline or school doing human rights-related work to receive feedback from peers and faculty in an informal and supportive environment. These forums occur once per month during the academic year. Each session is split between the student researcher’s presentation and time reserved for questions and feedback.

We welcome graduate students and faculty from any discipline or school to attend. UConn graduate students doing human rights-related work are encouraged to sign up to discuss their work in a future forum.

Schedule:

2:30 - 2:33 pm Mindfulness Moment, Phoebe Godfrey, Professor of Sociology and co-chair Metanoia Committee

2:33 - 2:35 pm Welcome and Introduction of the Speakers, Jon Heiden, USG President

2:35 - 2:55 pm Communicating Across Differences, Jeffrey Hines, AVP/ODI

2:55 - 3:15 pm Listening with Empathy, Bill Kania, SHAW-MH

3:15 - 3:17 pm Closing remarks, Jennifer Lease-Butts, AVP Enrichment Programs and co-chair Metanoia Committee

This program will be livestreamed to:

Avery Point: Avery Point Library, Study Room 2, 1st Floor

Stamford: Room 216

Waterbury: Student Lounge

Attendees are also invited to stay for the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative event hosted by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute titled “UConn Strong: A dialogue on Mental Health & Resilience” immediately following the kick-off event. 

Metanoia charge from University Senate:

In recent months and years, we have experienced significant changes that have resulted in an increase in divisiveness in US society and beyond. Debates on contentious topics can quickly become heated and lead to missed opportunities for productive and understanding dialogue. It is clear there is a need for members of the UConn community to come together and discuss pathways to productive civil discourse. UConn is a community which respects all members and strives towards inclusivity and understanding. However, if members of our community do not have the tools to engage in productive discourse and dialogue together, we cannot truly foster an environment of equity, inclusion, and understanding.

Amidst the myriad challenges faced by students and our university community, the imperative for prioritizing mental health has never been clearer. With statistics from the World Health Organization indicating that 1 in 2 individuals grapple with mental health issues—a figure steadily on the rise—our campus is no exception to this pressing concern. With such a diverse population of students on campus, fueled by the ebbs and flows of current events, we must meet any resulting tensions with accessible resources tailored to safeguarding mental well-being and promoting resilience.

In response to this pressing issue, we invite students, staff, and faculty alike to join us for what promises to be an enriching dialogue.

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This gathering aims to cultivate a supportive and encouraging space where voices can be heard, perspectives shared, and insights gleaned. Through open discussions facilitated by University mental health advocates, we will explore strategies for nurturing a campus environment that champions mental wellness and resilience.

Together, we’ll delve into the importance of mental health and wellbeing, gain a better understanding of how the campus community supports mental health and wellbeing, and chart pathways towards enhanced student support and critical care. Whether you’re seeking ways to advocate for your own needs or are eager to learn how to support loved ones and friends, this dialogue offers a platform for collective growth and empowerment.

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Dinner will be provided after the dialogue at 5:30 pm. All participants are welcome and there is no cost to register or attend. Pet therapy dogs and sound healing will be available.

This dialogue is organized by the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative Student Fellows in collaboration with Student Health & Wellness, the Dean of Students Office, and UConn Metanoia.

Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute). For more information or if you require accommodation to attend a forum, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu. 

Narrative and testimony are powerful modes of inquiry that are informed by the lived experiences of research participants. In this workshop we will explore the work of five scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds who center narrative and testimony in projects on: asylum expert witnessing; transgender, intersex and gender variant asylum seekers; victim testimony and transitional justice; and experiences of sex workers.

In the first half of the workshop, these scholars will discuss the unique findings and research advances generated by this research methodology, and explore the benefits and challenges of this type of approach. In the second half of the workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to engage with these scholars, and ask questions to help apply these approaches to their own research and advocacy work.

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Speakers

Carrie Booth Walling

Executive Director, Human Rights Program, University of Minnesota

Tricia Redeker Hepner

Professor of Anthropology, Arizona State University

Michelle Jurkovich

Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston

Hera Jay Brown

Founder and Executive Director, Sanctuarium

Erica Laplante

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut

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This workshop is sponsored by the Human Rights Research & Data Hub at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut.

Lunch will be provided. Please register below if you plan to attend in person.

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The Human Rights Practice Lab is a project-based capstone course that provides Master’s students in human rights with an opportunity to critically engage with human rights issues, strategies, tactics, institutions, and law in a practical setting. Students complete a project that advances the work of a human rights organization on the local, national, or international level.

The students completed the following projects, which they will present:

The Human Rights Cities Project for the US National Human Rights Cities Alliance, Melissa Chioreso and Aida Gradascevic

State Preemption and Human Rights Cities for the US National Human Rights Cities Alliance, Gamze Ozker and B Diaz

A National Human Rights Institute in the United States for the National Human Rights Institute Campaign, Emma Dashnaw, Aubri Petersen, and Peyton Marie De Lorenzo Pease

Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights Curriculum for Human Rights Education Associates, Sage Phillips and Saah Agyemang-Badu

Rights of the Benet Mosopisyek Indigenous community in Uganda for the Benet Mosop Community Association, Katie McCluney, Sue Collins, and Grace Pereira Lopes