“We believe that that memory must open a channel to human rights. Why human rights? Because we realize that when a people is threatened, it doesn’t remain threatened alone. When a group is singled out, it affects all other groups.” – Elie Wiesel
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HUMAN RIGHTS AT UCONN
Examining the most pressing human rights questions and preparing the next generation of human rights leaders.

HRI circles blue and rust

Highlighted Events

Nobody's Listening is a physical and VR exhibition on display in The Dodd Center for Human Rights in Spring 2025.

Nobody's Listening

Immersive Exhibition

Spring 2025 • Storrs, CT

Nobody's Listening is an immersive exhibition commemorating the Yazidi genocide initiated by ISIS in the summer of 2014 in northern Iraq. Using photography, art and virtual reality technology, the exhibition explores the consequences of the genocidal campaign by ISIS and its devastating effect on persecuted communities and their cultural heritage. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a ground-breaking virtual reality experience, Nobody’s Listening: The Forgotten Voices of Sinjar. This room-scale interactive experience transports viewers to northern Iraq using a blend of 360-degree documentary film-making, stunning Yazidi artwork and the latest virtual reality technology.

Learn more about the Nobody's Listening exhibition

The Inaugural Genocide Awareness Lecture will be delivered by Dr. James Waller.

Inaugural Genocide Awareness Lecture

Our Walled World: Identity & Separation in Deeply Divided Societies

April 22, 2025 • Storrs, CT

Dr. James Waller, the Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice and a renowned expert in genocide and atrocity prevention, delivers the inaugural Genocide Awareness Lecture at UConn, commemorating Genocide Awareness Month. Offering a comprehensive analysis of how deeply divided societies construct physical, symbolic, and hidden walls that foster isolation and fear, Dr. Waller examines these divisions through a global comparative lens. Emphasizing the critical need for greater integration, Waller will propose strategies that dismantle the barriers perpetuating the 'us' and 'them' fault lines of our fractured societies.

Learn more about the Genocide Awareness Lecture

UConn Today News

Red handprints and paint splatter over a blue and yellow background, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, with the words '!Stop War!' in the center, featuring black line drawings of human hands pulling at the borders of the country and a flying dove.
Babbidge Library Exhibit Offers Powerful Images of War, and Hope, Created by Ukrainian Children

“Children Draw War, Not Flowers” will be on display at the Homer Babbidge Library through August 1

Black-and-white photograph from 1938 depicting a crowd of women, many carrying protest signs. In the background, the iconic Washington Memorial pokes over the tree line.
Living Ernestina: A Woman’s Story of Bravery, Exile, Tragic Love, and Activism

‘This kind of story reminds us that everyday people can have such an impact in many ways, but it’s easy to be forgotten’

One man and three women pose in a group.
Coalition of Education Groups Hosts CT Premiere of “Counted Out” Math Documentary

More than 400 attend screening of film that offers a new perspective on math and its foundational influences on society, democracy, and economic opportunity

Researchers work in a village in Peru.
NSF Project Evaluates Students’ Attitudes Toward Human Rights in Engineering 

Faculty from engineering, human rights, and education are integrating human rights into the engineering curricula to foster a more socially aware generation of engineers

In the News

AI Odyssey at Hartford Public Library’s Albany Library

October 17, 2024

A partnership between the Hartford Public Library, University of Connecticut, and the Connecticut/Baden-Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium culminated in a two-day event, AI Odyssey, aiming to bridge the digital divide in AI and support teens learning to harness innovative technologies.

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Checking In With The U.S. Treasurer

November 1, 2023

Human Rights graduate student Sage Phillips ’22 (CLAS), ’24 MA, speaks with U.S. Treasurer Lynn Malerba ’08 MPA, Chief of the Mohegan Tribe, on the significance of her role as both a tribal leader and senior U.S. official, as well as the values of representation and inspiration.

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