Foundations of Humanitarianism

The Program

Foundations of Humanitarianism was founded in 2005 by the directors of the University of Connecticut's Human Rights and Humanities Institutes. The program aims to bring the contributions of the humanities-history, literature, and philosophy-into the mainstream of human rights discourse. Specifically, it creates venues for dialogue among scholars to trace the intellectual, social, and cultural origins of the ethos of humanitarianism, which is the ideology and sensibility that has generated and sustained assertions of human rights for at least the past two centuries. It encourages researchers, moreover, to train humanities perspectives on pressing issues in contemporary human rights, humanitarian law, and humanitarian intervention, and also to assess the future of humanitarianism in relation to rival paradigms that articulate the connections and responsibilities that individuals, states, and transnational groups have to other human beings and the shared world in which they live.

Directors

The Program is currently under the direction of:

Faculty Study Groups, 2009-10

The Foundations of Humanitarianism Program at the University of Connecticut is sponsoring 3 faculty study groups for 2009-10. These groups are open to all interested University of Connecticut faculty and aim to foster faculty research in human rights.

Please read the descriptions below and contact information.

Human Rights, Humanitarianism and the Media
Foundations of Humanitarianism Study Group, 2009-2010
Conveners: Kerry Bystrom (English) and Kathy Libal (Social Work)

This group will study the intersection of human rights, humanitarianism and the media through two different lenses: (1) theories of visual culture and media studies and (2) the situated analysis of specific cases. Since the rise of mass media in the early Twentieth century, intellectuals have shown discomfort with the visual register of modernity. Susan Sontag’s famous thesis in On Photography (1973) that photographs inhibit rather than assist people in their efforts to understand tragic events like war is a case in point. However, and as many commentators have pointed out, human rights activism and campaigns for humanitarian causes now take place largely on the visual plane.  The aim of this group is work through recent scholarship charting the complex relationship that has developed between visual and print media, public culture and individual action. Along with theoretical texts on this topic by scholars such as Ariella Azoulay, Luc Boltanski, Allen Feldman, Wendy Hesford and Thomas Keenan, we will examine the reportage of cases of specific interest to members of the group. While the ultimate choice of cases will be up to group members, possibilities include the treatment of Iraqi refugees, “humanitarian” adoption, celebrity efforts to draw attention to Darfur, detention of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., or the Rwandan genocide. We also plan to reserve some space for workshopping essays by reading group members.

This group will meet six times over the course of the 2009-2010 academic year, beginning in September 2009. Each meeting will be capped at 1.5 hours. For more information or to join the group, please email Kerry Bystrom (kerry.bystrom@uconn.edu) or Kathy Libal (kathryn.libal@uconn.edu)

Origins and Evolution of Humanitarian Thought
Foundations of Humanitarianism Study Group, 2009-2010
Convener: Emma Gilligan (History)
Over the course of the academic year, 2008-2009, the Foundations of Humanitarianism History reading group met regularly to discuss articles and books on the topic of the origins and evolution of humanitarian thought. Among the books covered were Gary Jonathan Bass’ ‘Freedom’s Struggle: the Origins of Humanitarianism” and “Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action” by T. Weiss. The group read and discussed a range of articles by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Didier Fassin , Adi Ophir, Ariella Azoulay and Nancy Rosehunt.

Over the 2009-2010 academic year, we would like to begin the Fall semester with a 3 part discussion of Ben Kiernan’s new prize-winning book, "Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur." Discussion over the Spring semester, 2010 will attempt to analyze and discuss various government and non-governmental humanitarian reactions to instances of genocide in the twentieth century.

For all of those interested, please contact Emma Gilligan at emma.gilligan@uconn.edu.
We plan, at this stage, to conduct three meetings over the course of each semester, with a planned visitor in the Spring (still to be determined).

Narrative and Human Rights
Foundations of Humanitarianism Study Group, 2009-2010
Convener: Sarah Winter (English)
The goal of this group has been to investigate how narrative representations function to convey understanding and urgency in the field of human rights. We have been studying the uses of narrative broadly defined across genres and disciplines, including, history, philosophy, literature, literary theory, law, journalism, rhetoric, and psychology. Working across historical periods and instances when human rights have come into question since the eighteenth century, we have been particularly interested in investigating the locations and opportune moments of human rights narratives: where and on what kinds of formal and informal occasions such stories are elicited and told, not only in texts but also in legal testimony, private letters, photographs, or archival documents. One of our goals is to develop historically-based methods of analysis to determine how narratives about human rights, whether violated or upheld, can emerge into larger public awareness, and how the effects of such accounts on political or humanitarian response and action can be demonstrated.

A meeting will be scheduled in late September with interested group members to discuss plans for the 09-10 academic year, including the selection of readings and possible invitation of a guest seminar leader during the spring semester. 

For all of those interested, please contact Sarah Winter, sarah.winter@uconn.edu

Research Initiatives

The Program has developed a series of research initiatives designed to promote scholarship about humanitarianism, including:

Funding Initiatives

The Program also provides funding for initiatives in the performing and visual arts.

Recent Foundations of Humanitarianism co-sponsored initiatives include:

The Benton Art Museum
January 22 – March 30, 2008 The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946
see: http://www.thebenton.org/exb_current.php?inc=5

Connecticut Repertory Theatre
2007 production of Pentecost
see: http://www.crt.uconn.edu/shows.htm#2

Post- Doctoral Fellow

Glenn Mitoma

Glenn Mitoma received a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from Claremont Graduate University in 2007 and a B.A. in Photography from the University of Santa Cruz in 1996. Prior to coming to UConn as the post-doctoral fellow with the Foundations of Humanitarianism Program this past fall, Glenn taught American Studies at Cal State Fullerton and Cultural Studies at CGU. He has written on the history of the UN human rights regime and is currently working on a biography of the Lebanese philosopher and statesman (and occasional coauthor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Charles H. Malik.

 

Program Queries can be directed to Alexis Dudden or Kerry Bystrom.