Research Program on Arts & Human Rights

The Research Program on Arts & Human Rights explores how the arts can promote the full exercise of human rights and the consolidation of a democratic culture. The arts not only make human rights visible. They also advance democratic thinking as they help us imagine new futures and open unique spaces for dialogue and debate, ushering us into novel modes of experience that provide concrete grounds for rethinking our relationship with one another. Thus, the arts can act as a powerful means of sustaining individual and collective reflection on human rights, and of linking individual and collective public experience, social belonging, and citizenship.

Guiding Concepts

Art makes visible human rights, and their violation, helping us combat injustice.
Art strengthens mutual recognition, opening new spaces for dialogue and debate.
Art forges new potential futures, helping us envision a more moral and just society.

Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, Tierra de Luz

Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, Tierra de Luz

Themes & Projects

Spatial Memory
Memorials, memorialization; museums and sites of conscience; spaces of human rights

Symbolic Reparations and Transitional Justice
Responding to demands for truth, recognition, dignity, justice and accountability made by victims of human rights violations

Arts and Democracy
Fostering democratic imagination through the visual and performing arts

Visual Culture and Human Rights
Traditional and new visual practices and technologies in relation to human rights

Performance and Human Rights
Demonstration of human rights questions through theatre and performance studies

Events

Faculty Seminar Series – Spring 2023

In Spring 2023, we are thrilled to host three faculty experts for discussions at the intersection of the arts and human rights.
For more information or to register for any session visit the Faculty Seminar Series page.

 

Subverting Statues: Race, Space, Performance, and the Arab American National Museum
Thursday, March 9, 2023 | 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm | Asif Majid

The Fate of Human Beings: A Documentary Film Reframing the Narrative of Institutionalization through Mental Institution Gravesites
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 | 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm | Heather Cassano

Stubborn Negativity: On Willy Retto’s Uchuraccay Massacre Last Image
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 | 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm | José Falconi

Human Rights & Cultural Resistance through Theatre – April 2023

Human Rights & Cultural Resistance through Theatre
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Nafe Katter Theatre
UConn Fine Arts Complex
Register to attend

Ordinary Curators at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial – November 2022

Ordinary Curators at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
The Dodd Center for Human Rights - Room 162
In Person & Online
Register to attend

The Shape of Justice: Spatializing Public Memory – October 2022

The Shape of Justice: Spatializing Public Memory
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Class of  '47 Room, Homer Babbidge Library
Register to attend

Theatre and Human Rights: The Politics of Dramatic Form – April 2022

Theatre and Human Rights: The Politics of Dramatic Form
Gary English
UConn, 21 April 2022
Watch the recording

Transitional Justice & Memorialization: Architecture, Memory, Truth – April 2021

Transitional Justice & Memorialization: Architecture, Memory, Truth
Sergio Beltrán García
UConn, 26 April 2021
Watch the recording

Arts & Human Rights News

Scott Wallace, associate professor of journalism, discusses his experiences as a war reporter. (Photo by Scott Wallace)
Photography from the Front Line on Exhibit

Scott Wallace, associate professor of journalism, discusses his experiences as a war reporter in advance of a panel discussion at 4 p.m. at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

The Eye That Cries (El ojo que llora), Lima, Peru. (Photoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
From Conflict to Peace: The Role of Art

Memorials commemorating a nation’s past conflicts can help build a more peaceful future, say two UConn researchers.

The courtyard of the Freedom Theatre, a theater and cultural center in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the northern part of the West Bank. (Photo supplied by Gary English)
UConn Professor Studies Middle East Conflict Through Refugee Camp Theater Group

Dramatic arts professor Gary English is spending a year working with the Freedom Theatre in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Our People

Leadership

Jose Falconi

José Luis Falconi

Co-Chair, Research Program on Arts & Human Rights
Assistant Professor, Art History & Human Rights

jose.falconi@uconn.edu

Robin Greeley

Robin Greeley

Co-Chair, Research Program on Arts & Human Rights
Professor, Art History

robin.greeley@uconn.edu

Michael Orwicz

Co-Chair, Research Program on Arts & Human Rights
Associate Professor, Art History

michael.orwicz@uconn.edu

People

Alexis Boylan

Professor of Art History and Africana Studies Institute
Director of Academic Affairs, Humanities Institute

alexis.boylan@uconn.edu

Stephen Dyson

Professor, Political Science

stephen.dyson@uconn.edu

Gary English

Professor, Dramatic Arts

gary.english@uconn.edu

José Falconi

Co-Chair, Research Program on Arts & Human Rights
Assistant Professor, Art and Art History & Human Rights Institute

jose.falconi@uconn.edu

Robin Greeley

Co-Chair, Research Program on Arts & Human Rights
Associate Professor, Art History

robin.greeley@uconn.edu

Shareen Hertel

Shareen Hertel

Wiktor Osiatyński Chair of Human Rights
Professor, Political Science & Human Rights

shareen.hertel@uconn.edu

Emily Larned

Assistant Professor, Graphic Design

emily.larned@uconn.edu

Kathryn Libal

Kathryn Libal

Director, Human Rights Institute
Associate Professor, Social Work & Human Rights

kathryn.libal@uconn.edu

Jacqueline Loss

Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Literatures, Cultures, & Languages

jacqueline.loss@uconn.edu

Asif Majid

Asif Majid

Assistant Professor, Dramatic Arts & Human Rights

asif.majid@uconn.edu

Catherine Masud

Catherine Masud

Assistant Professor In-Residence, Human Rights Documentary Filmmaking

catherine.masud@uconn.edu

Michael Orwicz

Co-Chair, Research Program on Arts & Human Rights
Associate Professor, Art History

michael.orwicz@uconn.edu

Macushla Robinson

Director, Contemporary Art Galleries
Assistant Professor in Residence, Department of Art & Art History

macushla.robinson@uconn.edu

Christine Sylvester

Professor, Political Science

christine.sylvester@uconn.edu

Lynne Tirrell

Professor, Philosophy

lynne.tirrell@uconn.edu

Scott Wallace

Scott Wallace

Associate Professor, Journalism

scott.wallace@uconn.edu