Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute

About this Event

This event is hosted by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and co-sponsored by UConn Asian and Asian American Studies. The Human Rights Lunchtime Colloquium hosts guest speakers who present and discuss their research exploring emerging ideas, theories, and practices on the frontiers of human rights.

We welcome you to join us over lunch in Conference Room 162 of The Dodd Center for Human Rights. Simply register below.

Abstract

Studies about port cities in the Global South extensively discuss their development and planning during the colonial, postcolonial and neo-liberal periods. Some of them focus on the development and uniformity of infrastructure in urban spaces across the world. However, the many contentions and protests that shape postcolonial urban spaces in relation to race, caste, gender and environmental issues find little space in urban studies scholarship. Filling this gap, my research on the Indian subcontinent’s port city of Kochi takes into account of people’s struggles and belonging with the water-world as crucial to shaping and sustaining postcolonial port cities. I demonstrate these struggles as efforts to democratize the otherwise deeply segregated and hierarchical urban space on the basis of caste and gender, as well as championing the need to preserve the seashores and marine life for our collective eco-futures. Specifically, I illustrate an island community’s struggles to preserve their marine ecology in the port city of Kochi. Their protests, actively led by women from the caste-oppressed shore communities, demonstrate embodied and decolonial ways of being in the saline and fresh water worlds that surround them. The women protestors reinstate the peripherized islands’ geographical prominence along with the need to protect the seashores, not only for their life on the delicate coastal land but also for the wider land systems that thrive in rhythm with the water-world.

About the Speaker

Carmel Christy K J is a cultural studies scholar interested in the politics and affective manifestations of gender, environment, caste and urban space in South Asia. She is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi. Currently, she is a postdoctoral research associate at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut. She has published on the intersectionality of caste, gender and environmental justice in South Asia, the interrelationship between land, caste and gender; caste bias in Indian higher educational institutions as well as on displacement, religion and urban space-making in India. Her first book Sexuality and Public Space in India: Reading the Visible (Routledge, 2017) discusses the new-found hyper-visibility of women’s sexuality in Indian media, after the 1990s-globalization, through the lens of caste. Carmel is working on her next monograph Fading shores, forging life: Caste, gender and ecology in a South Asian port city about urban space-making in coastal India which examines the question of gender, caste, spatial and environmental justice.

About Master Practitioner Workshops

Human Rights Master Practitioner Workshops offer UConn human rights graduate students a unique opportunity to learn about human rights practice from notable human rights scholars, campaigners, organizers, and educators from the global stage.

This is a professional event for Human Rights Master’s Degree and Graduate Certificate students.

About the Facilitator

Mike Brand is a human rights, atrocities prevention, and peacebuilding professional with nearly two decades of experience in policy, advocacy, organizing, and education. Throughout his career, Mike has worked for various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United States, Rwanda, and South Sudan, and has done fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Mike supports civil society organizations and diaspora networks in strategic planning, program development, and achieving their advocacy and organizing objectives. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, national and international publications, and has been quoted in international news outlets as an expert in his field. Mike is also an Adjunct Professor of mass atrocities prevention and human rights at Georgetown University and the University of Connecticut. He holds a Master of Arts in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University, with a concentration in human rights and atrocities prevention, and Bachelors of Arts in History and Political Science with a minor in human rights from the University of Connecticut.

Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP below.

About this Event

Reflecting on three key projects from the past 30 years artist Liam Gillick will talk about his work related to subjects as varied as the secret life of Robert McNamara, car production in Sweden in the 1970s, and the impossibility of tragedy as genre on streaming platforms. All his work has in one way or another drawn inspiration from post World War II attempts to create new forms of administration in regard to human relationships.

About the Speaker

Liam Gillick works across diverse forms, including installation, video and sound. A theorist, curator and educator as well as an artist, his wider body of work includes published essays and texts, lectures, curatorial and collaborative projects. Gillick’s work reflects upon conditions of production in a post-industrial landscape including the aesthetics of economy, labour and social organization. His work exposes the dysfunctional aspects of a modernist legacy in terms of abstraction and architecture when framed within a globalized, neo-liberal consensus, and extends into structural rethinking of the exhibition as a form. He has produced a number of short films since the late 2000s which address the construction of the creative persona in light of the enduring mutability of the contemporary artist as a cultural figure. Margin Time (2012) The Heavenly Lagoon (2013) and Hamilton: A Film by Liam Gillick (2014). The book Industry and Intelligence: Contemporary Art Since 1820 was published by Columbia University Press in March 2016. 



Gillick’s work has been included in numerous important exhibitions including documenta and the Venice, Berlin, Shanghai and Istanbul Biennales - representing Germany in 2009 in Venice. Solo museum exhibitions have taken place at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate in London. Gillick’s work is held in many important public collections including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Over the last twenty five years Gillick has also been a prolific writer and critic of contemporary art – contributing to Artforum, October, Frieze and e-flux Journal. He is the author of a number of books including a volume of his selected critical writing. High profile public works include the British Government Home Office (Interior Ministry) building in London and the Lufthansa Headquarters in Frankfurt. Throughout this time Gillick has extended his practice into experimental venues and collaborative projects with artists including Philippe Parreno, Lawrence Weiner, Louise Lawler, Adam Pendleton and the band New Order, in a series of concerts in Manchester, Turin and Vienna.

Sponsors

This event is sponsored by the Research Program on Arts & Human Rights, a collaborative program hosted at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute led by faculty from the School of Fine Arts. It is co-sponsored by the Department of Art & Art History.

About this Event

Responses to climate change have broad and substantial human rights implications felt near and far. The concept of just transition puts front and center the welfare of affected workers and communities in order to ensure that the greening of the economy is fair, just, and inclusive. This event brings together academic researchers, human rights practitioners, and business professionals to address the role of business, focusing on the responsibilities of investors to ensure that the transition to net zero leaves no one behind.

About the Keynote Speaker

Treasurer Erick Russell was sworn in as Connecticut’s 84th State Treasurer on January 4, 2023. Growing up in New Haven, he adopted the work ethic and financial responsibility of his parents by working in the family’s small convenience store. He was the first in his family to graduate from college and law school, becoming a successful attorney.

As Treasurer, Russell is continuing the public finance and social equity work that defined his legal career. In addition to sound and ethical pension fund management, he is prioritizing financial literacy and long-term investments to promote economic opportunity. He continues to live in New Haven with his husband, Christopher Lyddy. Russell is the first Black out LGBTQ person to win an election for statewide office in American history.

Fireside Chat

Following the keynote address, Stephen Park and Rachel Chambers, co-directors of the UConn Business & Human Rights Initiative, will moderate a discussion with:

• Mary Beth Gallagher, Director of Engagement at Domini Impact Investments
• Adam Kanzer, Head of Stewardship, Americas at BNP Paribas Asset Management
• Kindra Mohr, Associate Director at Financial Services and Human Rights, BSR
• Paul Rissman, Co-Founder of Rights CoLab

Sponsors

This event is hosted by the Business & Human Rights Initiative (BHRI), a joint program of the Gladstein Human Rights Institute and UConn School of Business, in collaboration with the School of Business Eversource Energy Chair in Business Ethics and Global Business Programs, as well as the Collaboratory for JUST Innovation & Climate Equity.

What does it mean to be politically engaged? How do political action and freedom of speech shape our society? In 1860, amidst deep political divisions and fears of civil war, five young men from Hartford, Connecticut, formed a campaign organization that grew into a nationwide movement, ultimately helping to elect Abraham Lincoln. The bold and creative activism of the “Wide Awakes”—many of whom were too young to vote—raises questions that remain strikingly relevant today.

A new exhibit at the Connecticut Museum brings the story of the Wide Awakes to life through rare artifacts and documents from the museum’s collection. Attendees will have the opportunity to delve deeper into this history through facilitated conversations and a Q&A session with guest scholars and activists. The artifacts serve as a lens to explore how Americans in the past grappled with free speech, democracy, and political conflict, sparking connections to contemporary civic engagement.

The program will begin at 6:00 pm. Doors open at 5:30 pm, so please come early to browse the Museum galleries and share a light meal before the program begins!

This event is hosted by the Democracy & Dialogues Initiative and Connecticut Museum of Culture and History

Click here to register.

FREE.

This dialogue will explore the trajectory of Black freedom celebrations from Jubilee to Juneteenth and reflect on the meaning of those commemorations in the imaginations of the African diaspora.

Inspired by the lecture and Annette Gordon-Reed’s reflections in her book On Juneteenth, we will examine the complexities of memory and commemoration, and how these rituals connect personal and collective histories, shaping our understanding of freedom, identity, and justice in America. Together, we’ll discuss the significance of Juneteenth as both a celebration of liberation and a call to action for continued work toward racial equity.

Participants will engage in facilitated small-group discussions, sharing perspectives on the evolving meaning of freedom, historical memory, and how these commemorations continue to inspire the African diaspora. Whether you are deeply familiar with Juneteenth or just beginning to learn about its significance, this dialogue welcomes all voices to reflect, connect, and build community together.

About the 2025 Economic & Social Rights Conference

Growing inequality since the 1990s has coincided with several system “shocks” that have deepened the precarity of working people around the world and in the US, particularly. This includes the global financial crises of 1997, 2008-9, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019-2020. Accompanying these global shocks has been a steady erosion of labor union power in many advanced industrial countries, catalyzed by widespread de-regulation of product, labor and capital markets. Counter to this trajectory, however, are the emergence of the Worker Driven Social Responsibility Movement in the 2010s (which has pushed for worker-designed contractual agreements in global supply chains) along with the rise of renewed union militancy in the post-pandemic moment, leading to expansive collective agreements in the North American auto industry. This ESRG Workshop focuses on the prospects for workers amidst democratic backsliding in the United States and beyond. How will labor fare and why?

About Cathy Albisa

Cathy Albisa is the Vice President of Institutional and Sectoral Change at Race Forward, the department that houses the Government Alliance on Race and Equity and the Federal Initiative to Govern for Racial Equity, along with projects on housing, land and development. She was the co-founder of Partners for Dignity and Rights, a social movement organization that supports visionary grassroots campaigns for economic and social rights. She has taught at CUNY Law School and Columbia Law School, where she was the founding Associate Director of the Bringing Human Rights Home Network. As a senior attorney at the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights she has litigated constitutional cases on issues of reproductive rights, human rights and separation of church and state. She has also published on a wide array of topics including reproductive rights, land housing, gender justice, equal protection, and local democracy.

Sponsor

This event is hosted by the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights (ESRG) at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.

Join Us

This event is in-person only. Please join us in the Konover Auditorium of The Dodd Center for Human Rights at UConn Storrs. Stay after for a catered reception.

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About the 2025 Economic & Social Rights Conference

Growing inequality since the 1990s has coincided with several system “shocks” that have deepened the precarity of working people around the world and in the US, particularly. This includes the global financial crises of 1997, 2008-9, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019-2020. Accompanying these global shocks has been a steady erosion of labor union power in many advanced industrial countries, catalyzed by widespread de-regulation of product, labor and capital markets. Counter to this trajectory, however, are the emergence of the Worker Driven Social Responsibility Movement in the 2010s (which has pushed for worker-designed contractual agreements in global supply chains) along with the rise of renewed union militancy in the post-pandemic moment, leading to expansive collective agreements in the North American auto industry. This ESRG Workshop focuses on the prospects for workers amidst democratic backsliding in the United States and beyond. How will labor fare and why?

About Janice Fine

Janice Fine is a professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations and director of the Workplace Justice Lab@RU within the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University. For the latter, she writes and teaches about economic justice movements and organizations including unions, worker centers, community organizing groups and other forms of collective action in the U.S and cross-nationally; historical and contemporary debates within labor movements regarding immigration; labor standards enforcement; privatization and state capacity for contract oversight. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers in 2005, she worked as a labor, community and political organizer and trainer for over twenty years and continues to collaborate with unions, worker centers, immigrant rights organizations and community organizing groups. She holds a B.A. in labor studies/community planning from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sponsor

This event is hosted by the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights (ESRG) at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.

Join Us

This event is in-person only. Please join us in the Konover Auditorium of The Dodd Center for Human Rights at UConn Storrs.

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Join us for a book talk and fireside chat, where Scott presents images and stories from his new book, based on seven years of frontline reporting from the warzones of Central America in the 1980s. He will join a panel of experts to discuss the current relevance of those events on immigration and our treatment of immigrants, the critical role of the press as a counterweight to disinformation, and the treatment of civilians in wartime.

About the Book

Central America in the Crosshairs of War: On the Road from Vietnam to Iraq is an unforgettable account of how misguided and illegal U.S. policies in Central America during the 1980s resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, created many of today’s problems along America’s Southern Border, and helped perpetuate a legacy of hawkish militarism at the expense of democracy and diplomacy.

During the 1980s, the United States financed and directed wars against popular movements in Central America. Vowing to block “Soviet expansion” in the hemisphere, the U.S. waged a Vietnam-style counterinsurgency in El Salvador while orchestrating a covert and illegal war to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Some 75,000 died in El Salvador, the vast majority at the hands of the U.S.-supported military and security forces. More than 35,000 were killed during the so-called Contra War in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, with tacit U.S. support, the Guatemalan military razed hundreds of Indigenous communities and killed more than 200,000 people during a civil war that claimed the lives of 100,000 Mayan villagers.

Scott Wallace covered these conflicts throughout the decade for some of the world’s most prestigious media, including CBS News, Newsweek, and The Guardian. Traveling along the frontlines of war, Wallace evolved a distinctive reporting style that included photojournalistic portraits of startling intimacy, page-turning tales of high adventure, and incisive analysis of the events he witnessed. The result is this unforgettable account in words and images of a reporter coming of age on the battlefield as he seeks the truth amid a landscape rife with death and deception.

About the Author

Scott Wallace is an award-winning writer, television producer, and photojournalist who has covered armed conflict, the environment, vanishing cultures around the world for the past four decades. He joined the Journalism Department at the University of Connecticut as an Associate Professor in 2017. He is an Affiliate Faculty member of El Instituto: UConn’s Institute of Latino/a, Caribbean and Latin American Studies.

In addition to his work in Central America, he has reported on war, organized crime, and the environment from Africa, South America, the Arctic, the Himalaya, Southeast Asia, China, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East.

As a frequent contributor to National Geographic, he has reported extensively from the deep recesses of the Amazon rainforest on environmental conflict and Indigenous cultures. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes, a firsthand account of his trek through the land of a mysterious tribe living in extreme isolation deep in the Amazon rainforest.

About the Event

Following a presentation by Scott Wallace, there will be a fireside chat with refreshments. Copies of Central America in the Crosshairs of War will be on sale at this event.

This event is hosted by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, in collaboration with the University of Connecticut’s El Instituto, Department of Journalism, Humanities Institute, Global Affairs, and the Research Program on Arts & Human Rights.

FREE.

About this Event

A central defining feature of deeply divided societies is binary division – “us” and “them.” These binary fault lines can arise from class, caste, religion, language, race, ethnicity, clan, or political identity. These divisions breed walled communities of fear and isolation, not only dividing populations but also uniting them in their fear of the “other.” Grounded in a global comparative analysis of the literal and figurative notion of “walls” in deeply divided societies, this presentation will analyze physical walls of social separation, symbolic walls of identity separation, and hidden or invisible walls of geographical separation. The presentation will conclude by emphasizing the need for more integration in deeply divided societies and suggesting specific strategies to address the physical, symbolic, and hidden or invisible walls that separate and wound the lives of people in such societies.

About the Speaker

James Waller, Ph.D., is the inaugural Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice and director of the Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs for the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut. In addition to his faculty appointment in the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages.

Waller also is a Visiting Scholar at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast and has held recurrent consultancy responsibilities with the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

Waller is the author of six books, most notably his award-winning Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2^nd ed., 2007), Confronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide (Oxford University Press, 2016), and A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2021). In addition, he has published more than thirty articles in peer-reviewed professional journals, contributed over twenty chapters in edited books, and is a co-editor of Historical Dialogue and the Prevention of Mass Atrocities (Routledge, 2020).

Waller also is active in teacher training in Holocaust and genocide studies, has consulted on exhibition development for several museums around the world, and has developed and led seminars to introduce government officials and security sector personnel from around the world to issues of genocide warning and prevention. His fieldwork has included research in Germany, Israel, Northern Ireland, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Guatemala.