The Research Program on Economic and Social Rights (ESRG) brings more than a dozen UConn faculty together with over 30 affiliated scholars from across the United States and Canada. Together, we have generated numerous graduate and undergraduate courses, several edited volumes, multiple co-authored articles, and the National Science Foundation-funded Socio-Economic Rights Fulfillment Index (SERF Index).
This page displays past years of ESRG programming. To view upcoming events, see the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights main page.
2023-24
April 8, 2024
Harnessing the Market for Social Change: Investors and Responsible Contracting
This event is supported by the Business & Human Rights Initiative and Economic & Social Rights Program at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.
Chavi Keeney Nana & Sarah Dadush explore the evolving landscape of responsible business conduct, focusing on legal requirements for human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) in corporate supply chains. This talk concerns the critical role contracts play in due diligence and how they aid investors in evaluating risks to human rights and the environment when making investment decisions.
April 2, 2024
Design for Freedom: Constructing a Humane Future with Ethical Materials
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.
Panelists: Sharon Prince and Nora Rizzo (Grace Farms), and Anna Dyson (Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture); The Design for Freedom movement brings industry leaders together to eliminate forced labor in the building materials supply chain, create true market transformation, and build a more equitable future.
February 23, 2024
Filling the Gaps: Measuring Respect for Children’s Rights around the World
Co-sponsored by Human Rights Research and Data Hub (HuRRD)
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. Despite broad international support for the norms outlined within the treaty, children’s rights around the world fail to be fully respected. Three decades after the CRC entered into force, it is more important than ever to hold states accountable to their treaty obligations. To do this, we must have a clear and comprehensive metric of how well states are meeting the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill children’s rights. Thus, in this project, we develop a new measure of children’s rights that incorporates the themes outlined in the CRC.
February 8, 2024
Realizing Economic Rights in the Blue Economy: Challenges and Opportunities
Co-sponsored by Connecticut Baden-Wurttemberg Human Rights Research Consortium
Blue Economy discourse can be described as overwhelmingly positive and in favor of Blue Economy focused development initiatives, critics have called attention to important issues such as a deliberate emphasis on economic growth as opposed to environmental sustainability, an often-missing acknowledgment of equity and justice considerations, as well as a general lack of geographical sensitivity. On the premise of these important critiques, Patrick Heidkamp explores the status of economic rights in the Blue Economy discourse and argues that to make a meaningful contribution, we must address these criticisms by actively engaging and shaping a just and sustainable Blue Economy.
January 24, 2024
Movement at the Margins? Shifting American Attitudes among Pandemic-era Childcare Benefits Recipients
Co-sponsored by the Political Economy Workshop in the Department of Political Science.
How did the Covid-19 pandemic affect Americans’ views on social policy? In this collaborative discussion, hear from Lyle Scruggs, Trevor Schantz, and Shareen Hertel on new findings that uncover how pandemic-era hardship impacted partisan attitudes toward government social spending.
December 1, 2023
Business & Human Rights in Collegiate Apparel Sourcing
Co-hosted by the Economic & Social Rights Program and Business & Human Rights Initiative
Verifying human rights standards are upheld in global supply chains is no easy task, but one essential for both ethical and legal compliance. To hear how professionals that work with UConn maintain this standard, come join us for a student-facing conversation with those who oversee ethics and compliance in one of UConn’s top licensed apparel manufacturers, Colosseum Athletics.
November 14, 2023
The Emancipatory Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Inclusive STEM Education
Hardly a day goes by without another story of the impact that AI will have on education. Whether praised for its fast-improving capabilities or derided for its use as a tool for cheating, we cannot lose sight of the potential that new technologies might hold for different constituencies when implemented carefully. In this talk, we ask “How might AI help us to address educational inequities in STEM?” with a particular focus on engineering education.
November 9, 2023
Abolition Redux? Rethinking Conventions on Slavery and Forced Labor in the Interwar Years
Co-hosted by the Economic & Social Rights Program and Business & Human Rights Initiative
Presenter: Mishal Khan, Yale Gilder Lehrman Center for Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition
October 3, 2023
‘We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age’ Discussion with Author Wendy Wong
Co-hosted by the Economic & Social Rights Program, Business & Human Rights Initiative, Engineering for Human Rights Initiative, Human Rights Research & Data Hub, and the UConn School of Law
Prof. Wendy Wong, The University of British Columbia
September 19, 2023
"Ethical Dilemmas: Corporate Response and Market Reaction to the Russia-Ukraine War"
Co-hosted by the Business & Human Rights Initiative, Economic & Social Rights Program, and Human Rights Research & Data Hub
Lingling Wang (UConn School of Business), Bennett Freeman (Principal, Bennett Freeman Associates LLC)
2022-23
March 29, 2023
“Supply Chains Disrupted: The Social & Environmental Dimensions of Reform”
Panel at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute's 20th Anniversary Conference
Tola Moeun (Executive Director, Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights in Cambodia), Marina Colby (Senior Labor Advisor, USAID), Mark Anner (Professor in the School of Labor & Employment Relations, Penn State University), Judy Gearhart (Senior Researcher, American University School of International Service)
February 17, 2023
"Human Rights Implications of UConn's Future Climate Venture Studio"
Abhijit Banerjee (Associate Vice President for Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Connecticut), Lyle Scruggs (Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut), Oksan Bayulgen (Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut), Michael Rubin (Human Rights Institute, Schools of Business and Engineering, University of Connecticut)
November 1, 2022
Genevieve LeBaron (Simon Fraser University) and Rachel Chambers (School of Business, University of Connecticut)
October 13, 2022
“Upending Capitalism as We Know It? Public Policy Experimentation and Its Implications for Business”
Tricia Olsen (University of Denver) and Lyle Scruggs (Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut)
September 28, 2022
“Disability Rights & Urban Development”
Tina Kempin Reuter (The University of Alabama at Birmingham)
2021-22
April 6, 2022
“Suffer The Children' - A Book Talk With Author Richard P. Hiskes”
Richard P. Hiskes (Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut)
March 4, 2022
“Using International Human Rights to Counter Urban Displacement and Advance Rights in Cities”
Jackie Smith (University of Pittsburgh)
February 18, 2022
“Resist or Embrace: Environmental Human Rights Advocacy at International Human Rights Organizations”
Bi Zhao (Whitworth University)
November 18, 2016
"Pandemics And Portals: Rights In An Era Of Technological Innovation"
Sushma Raman (Carr Center for Human Rights Policy)
2020-21
April 22, 2021
“The Earthday Roundtable on Food Security and Food Sovereignty”
Roundtable co-sponsored by the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights and the Human Rights Institute. This is a UConn Reads Event.
Annette Desmarais (Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty at University of Manitoba)
Michael Fakhri (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food)
Maywa Montenegro (Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz)
February 19, 2021
“Residential Segregation in an Urbanizing India”
Naveen Bharathi (University of Pennsylvania), Deepak Malghanb (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore), Andaleeb Rahman (Cornell University)
January 29, 2021
Michael Ashley Stein (Harvard Law)
Closed caption video stream available at: https://youtu.be/pEWJ8ZWyPgI . Please click the closed captioning button (CC) at the bottom, right side of the screen, and you will see the recording and the captions for the event.
September 17, 2020
Prakash Kashwan (Political Science, University of Connecticut)
2019-20
April 23, 2020
"Development, Human Rights, and the Universal Periodic Review in South Asia"
Joel Oestreich (Drexel University)
February 18, 2020
"Wheels of Change: Transforming Girl’s Lives with Bicycles"
Nishith Prakash (UConn Department of Economics; Human Rights Institute)
January 28, 2020
“The Art of Negotiation: The State, Society, and Development of Land Property Rights in Distorted Markets”
Meina Cai (UConn Department of Political Science)
Co-Sponsored jointly by Political Economy Workshop
October 12, 2019
"Environmental & Climate Justice: The Existential Challenge of Economic Rights"
Annual ESRG Workshop, Panels and discussion
October 11, 2019
“Climate and Environmental Justice: The Challenges, The Solutions”
Annual Keynote Address, Catherine Flowers (Founder, Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise Community Development Corporation; Senior Fellow, Center for Earth Ethics, New York)
2018-19
March 25, 2019
"A lawyer’s perspective on Economic Rights and Remedy”
Sara Hossain (Bangladesh Legal Aid and Service Trust)
March 1, 2019
"Automation Anxiety and the Right to Work”
Zehra Arat (Political Science, University of Connecticut) and Dabney Waring (Graduate student, Political Science, University of Connecticut)
February 18, 2019
Davis Chacon-Hurtado (Postdoctoral Fellow, Engineering & Human Rights, University of Connecticut)
January 25, 2019
"The HR Measurement Initiative (HRMI): An overview and progress update”
Susan Randolph (Emerita Professor, UConn Department of Economics,; Co-Director, ESRG)
See: https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/
November 1, 2018
Critiques and Counter-critiques of Human Rights
Book group discussion of Samuel Moyn’s Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World
Co-Sponsored with the HRI Human Rights Practice Cluster
October 26-27, 2018
"Popular Mobilization for Economic Rights: Exploring Grassroots and Community-based Experiences, Strategies and Outcomes"
Annual ESRG Workshop
2017-18
April 20, 2021
“Metanoia on the Environment event on “Climate Justice: Conversations Across Barriers and Borders”
April 19, 2018
“Human Rights Education and Police Violence in India”
Rachel Wahl (University of Virginia & ESRG Affiliate)
February 8, 2018
"The Built Environment: State Presence at Border Crossings in the Modern World"
Beth Simmons (Political Science, University of Pennsylvania)
December 7, 2017
"The Economic Implications of American Slavery's Jurisprudence"
Derek Johnson (Economics, University of Connecticut)
November 7, 2017
"Business and Human Rights as an Epistemic Community: Paths Taken, Paths Forsaken"
Stephen Park (School of Business, University of Connecticut)
October 5-6, 2017
ESRG Workshop, to coincide with conference "Protecting Human Rights at the End of the Line: Stakeholder Engagement in Light Manufacturing"
October 3, 2017
"The Audacity of Choice: the limitations of reproductive rights in West Africa”
Takiyah Harper-Shipman (Carnegie Mellon University)
2016-17
April 25, 2017
“Health Consequences of Schooling for Disadvantaged Women in Zimbabwe”
Jorge Aguero (Department of Economics, University of Connecticut)
March 21, 2017
“Rights and Queues: On Distributive Contests in the Modern State”
Katie Young (Boston College Law School)
February 8, 2017
“Daughters & Dowry: Marriage Payments & Consumption Spending”
Nishith Prakash (Department of Economics and Human Rights, University of Connecticut) and Sungoh Kwon (Department of Economics, University of Connecticut) and S. Anukriti (Boston College)
December 5, 2016
David Nersessian (Babson College)
November 4, 2016
"Designing and Drafting Legislation to Secure Economic & Social Rights: The Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment & Training Act (HR 1000)"
Phil Harvey (Rutgers Law)
October 21, 2016
"You Can't Sit With Us: International Law, Human Rights, and Homelessness"
Alyssa Webb (Doctoral candidate, Political Science, University of Connecticut)
September 29, 2016
“Social Rights and Participatory Health Policymaking: The Negotiating of Citizenship” by American Indian Tribal Nations in the U.S.
Lauren MacLean (Indiana University)
2015-16
April 8-9, 2016
2016 Annual Economic and Social Rights Lecture Keynote
Professor James Anaya
March 7, 2016
“Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment in the United States: A Spatial Perspective”
Patrick Heidkamp (Southern Connecticut State University)
February 4, 2016
Ute Reisinger (Fulbright Scholar, Austria; Candidate for MA in International Affairs, UConn)
January 28, 2016
"A Blueprint for Ending Poverty…. Permanently”
David Grusky (Director, Center on Poverty and Inequality, Stanford University)
December 10, 2015
Nita Rudra (Government, Georgetown University)
November 18, 2015
Discussion led by Susan Randolph of her new book (co-authored with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Terra Lawson-Remer) Fulfilling Economic & Social Rights (Oxford University Press 2015)
October 23, 2015
Challenges to Freedom of Expression in a Digital Age
David Kaye (UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression)
Keynote for a Conference on “Human Rights and New Technologies Conference”
September 28, 2015
“Policy Reforms and Challenges Related to Human Trafficking in Bihar: Role of Police”
Rajyabardhan Sharma (former Indian Police Service)
Co-sponsored by India Studies; Human Rights Institute Economic & Social Rights Program/ESRG; Unfree Labor in the Americas Study Group
September 9, 2015
“Institutional Investment for Human Rights Impact”
Keynote address for “The University as Corporate Citizen: How to Promote Human Rights and Sustainability in Collegiate Licensing, Procurement, and Investment” Conference.
Conference co-sponsored by the President’s Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility; The Thomas J. Dodd Center; the Human Rights Institute Economic & Social Rights Program/ESRG
2014-15
April 17-18, 2015
"Global Justice & Extra-Territorial Obligations"
Spring ESRG 2015 Workshop
April 3, 2015
"Prospects and Challenges of Ensuring the Right to Food in Ethiopia"
Semahagn Gashu Abebe (Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut)
March 11, 2015
"Human Rights Requirements for Achieving Universal Health Coverage"
Audrey Chapman (UConn Health Center)
February 27, 2015
Discussion of Capital in the 21st Century, by Thomas Piketty
Jane Gordon (Political Science, University of Connecticut)
February 23, 2015
"From Apple to Nike: Making Globalization Work for All"
Richard Locke (Professor, Brown University)
February 20, 2015
“Human Rights Monitoring: Progressive Realization versus the Violations Approach"
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (The New School)
January 21, 2015
"State Capacity and Human Rights: Examining the tools of repression."
Benjamin Carbonetti (Political Science, University of Connecticut)
December 2, 2014
“Human Rights & Economic Justice: Re-Reading the Quran & the International Bill of Rights"
Zehra Arat (Political Science, University of Connecticut)
November 3, 2014
Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi)
October 7, 2014
"Do Criminal Representatives Hinder or Improve Constituency Outcomes? Evidence from India"
Nishith Prakash (Economics and Human Rights, University of Connecticut)
September 11, 2014
"The Right to Read"
Lea Shaver (Law, Indiana University)
2012-13
April 30, 2013
“Food Security In Central Asia: Realities And Challenges”
Fakhmiddin Fazilov (Trinity College)
April 5, 2013
“Forging Economic And Social Rights: Why Institutions Matter”
Philip G. Alston (NYU Law School)
April 4-5, 2013
“Health And Human Rights: Social Mobilization, Law & Policy”
Workshop
March 5, 2013
“Health And Human Rights After Genocide: A Cambodian Example”
Megan Berthold (School of Social Work, University of Connecticut)
February 25, 2013
“Rights Based Fisheries Governance: From Fishing Rights To Human Rights”
Robert Pomeroy (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Connecticut)
February 5, 2013
“Radical Reforms: What Do They Miss?”
Prakash Kashwan (Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut)
December 4, 2012
“Hungry For Justice: Social Mobilization On The Right To Food In India”
Shareen Hertel (Political Science and Human Rights, University of Connecticut)
November 13, 2012
“Health And Human Rights After Genocide: A Cambodian Example”
Megan Berthold (School of Social Work, University of Connecticut)
October 16, 2012
“Petro-Justice, Alien Claims, And The Limits Of Human Rights Discourse”
Heather Turcotte (Political Science and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Connecticut)
September 11, 2012
“The Right To Development Revisited”
Shareen Hertel (Political Science and Human Rights, University of Connecticut)
2011-12
April 14, 2012
“Corporate Social Responsibility And Human Rights”
ESRG Workshop
April 13, 2012
“Keynote Lecture For ESRG Workshop”
March 30, 2012
“The Commitment To Public Services In India”
Vivek Srinivasan (Manager, Program on Liberation Technology, Stanford University)
February 29, 2012
“Environmental Rights And The Atmospheric Trust Litigation”
Kelly Matheson (Program Manager for the Americas, WITNESS)
February 3, 2012
“Worker Rights In Law & Practice: New Data & Applications”
Chad Clay (International Affairs, University of Georgia)
Colin Barry (Political Science, Binghamton University)
December 7, 2011
“Roundtable on Gendered Dimensions of Economic and Social Rights”
Zehra Kabasakal Arat, Visiting Gladstein Professor (Juanita and Joseph Leff Distinguished Professor, Political Science and Women’s Studies, SUNY Purchase)
November 18, 2011
“Who Pays for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights?”
Michael Goodhart (Political Science, University of Pittsburgh)
October 14, 2011
“The Politics of Transition to Rights-Based Approaches to Conservation in India”
Prakash Kashwan (Political Science, University of Connecticut)
September 30, 2011
“Roundtable on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)”
David Richards (Political Science/Human Rights, University of Connecticut)
2010-11
April 29, 2011
"Spatial Considerations of Economic Rights Measurement"
Patrick Heidkamp and Colin Ryan (Geography, Southern Connecticut State University)
April 9, 2011
“The State Of Economic and Social Rights”
ESRG Annual Workshop
March 25, 2011
“HIV Prevention Efforts, Human Rights, and Other Structural Dimensions: Factors related to the Success of Interventions around the Globe.”
Blair Johnson (Psychology, University of Connecticut)
February 25, 2011
“Environmental Justice and ESC Rights: Derived Protections from the European Court of Human Rights”
Steve Kutcha (Economics, University of Connecticut)
February 4, 2011
“Human Rights Protections for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Groups: The Contributions of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”
Audrey Chapman (UCONN Health Center) and Ben Carbonetti (Political Science, University of Connecticut)
November 19, 2010
“Economics and Human Rights: The Non-Conversation”
Sanjay Reddy (Economics, New School for Social Research)
October 29, 2010
“Macroeconomic Policy and Human Rights: A Case Study of the US and Mexico”
Radhika Balakrishnan (Rutgers, Women’s and Gender Studies) and Diane Elson (Sociology, Essex)
October 8, 2010
“On the Right to Clean Water: On the Resolution Recently Passed by the UN General Assembly”
Chris Jeffords (Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Connecticut) and Corinne Tagliarina (Political Science, University of Connecticut)
September 24, 2010
“On the Institutional Dilemmas of Human Rights Enforcement”
Derek Johnson (Economics, University of Connecticut)