Human Rights Research at UConn
Human Rights Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
The Human Rights Collections at in the Archives and Special Collections at the University Libraries developed in conjunction with the opening of the Dodd Center in 1995. Significant human rights collections at the Dodd Center include the Thomas J. Dodd Papers, which document his work as Chief Trial Counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, as well as oral histories and documentation gathered in partnership with the African National Congress in South Africa. Other important human rights collections include the records and library of Human Rights Internet, the records of the Coalition for International Justice, and the Refugee Case Files of the International Rescue Committee. Photographic collections, such as the Impact Visuals Photograph Collection, the Romano Human Rights Digital Photograph Collection, and the Clift Human Rights Photography Collection document international human rights violations and struggles for social justice. The Dodd Center also holds transcripts of interviews conducted by the Center for Oral History at the University of Connecticut, including interviews with Holocaust survivors in the Connecticut region and with American participants at the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials.
Additional human rights materials can be found in the Alternative Press Collection, which contains thousands of national and international newspapers, serials, books, pamphlets, ephemera and artifacts documenting activist themes and organizations, spanning from the 1800s to the present.
Contact the curator, valerie.love@uconn.edu for further information about these and other library and archival resources.
The Dodd Research Center collects:
- The records of human rights organizations based in the United States
- The papers of American participants in international tribunals
- Human rights photojournalism collections, including photography and the personal papers of human rights photographers and photojournalists
- Materials which document economic rights issues
- Personal papers of refugees in Connecticut and New England
- Human rights artists books, particularly artists' responses to terrorism, war, and genocide
Human Rights Collections at the Dodd Center include:
- African National Congress Collection (a small collection of memorabilia collected as part of the UConn ANC Partnership in 1999)
- African National Congress Oral History Transcripts Collection (133 transcripts of oral history interviews with leading anti-apartheid activists conducted between 2000 and 2006.)
- Alternative Press Collection (independent and counter-culture newspapers and publications from activist movements for social, cultural, and political change. The collection contains thousands of newspapers, serials, books, pamphlets, ephemera and artifacts documenting activist themes and organizations.)
- Center for Oral History Interviews Collection (includes interviews with Holocaust survivors in the Connecticut Region conducted in 1980-1981, as well as "Witnesses To Nuremberg, An Oral History Of American Participants At The War Crimes Trials.")
- Dodd (Thomas J.) Papers (include materials from the Nuremberg war crimes trial before the International Military Tribunal from 1945-46)
- Ho (Fred) Papers (accounts of Asian American culture and experience in the United States)
- Human Rights Internet Collection (the publications library of Human Rights Internet, a Canadian NGO which collected human rights publications from around the world, including materials which are not found in any other libraries in North America.)
- Impact Visuals Photographic Collection (photographs and slides which document the anti-apartheid movement and 1994 democratic elections in South Africa)
- Malka Penn Collection of Children's Books on Human Rights (over 180 children's books and young adult literature dealing with a variety of human rights themes including slavery, the Holocaust, war, and discrimination.)
- Mikhailov (Georgi) Collection (photographs and articles regarding Mikhailov's experiences in Soviet Labor camps in Northeast Siberia from 1980-1983)
- North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Archive (over 100 linear feet of materials including holdings on human rights, politics, and socio-economic conditions in Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and other parts of Central America.)
- Refugee Case Files of the International Rescue Committee (records of the New Jersey office of the International Rescue Committee-- some materials in the collection are restricted.)
- Romano Human Rights Digital Photograph Collection (Collection of noted photographer Robin Romano's gripping images of child labor from around the world. 218 images are available online through UConn's Digital Mosaic.)
- Tambo (Oliver) Papers (microfilm copies of the papers of anti-apartheid activist, Oliver Tambo; original documents are located at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa)
- Xuma (A.B.) Papers (microfilm copies of the papers of anti-apartheid activist, A.B. Xuma; original documents are located at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa)
For more information about the human rights archival collections, please visit the Dodd Center's website.