The Human Rights Film Series is back!

Screen shot from "Children of Shadows," by filmmaker Karen Kramer.

This year, the theme is Human Rights in the Americas, and we’ll be kicking things off with a screening of Children of Shadows, featuring a Q & A and reception with filmmaker Karen Kramer on Wednesday, September 15, at 4 pm in Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.   More information is available on the Dodd Center’s website. 

In Haiti, many parents are forced by destitution and desperation to give away their children. The children, who may be as young as four years old, then go to live and work for other families as unpaid domestic servants, or slaves. They are known as “restavek” children. 

Children of Shadows follows the children as they go through their daily chores – the endless cycle of cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, going to the market, or going to run errands. In heartbreaking interviews, the children speak openly and shyly about the lives they are forced to lead. Their “aunts” (adoptive caretakers) speak openly and proudly of the vast mountain of work that “their” restavek does for them. The camera goes deep into the countryside to interview the peasant families as to what kind of situation would force them to give away one or more of their children.

Please join us for an Open House at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.  The event will include interactive displays, presentations and one-on-one conversations to facilitate the discovery of the rich resources in the Archives that will help with your classes and your own personal research. 

Wednesday, April 14
4:00-6:00pm
Dodd Research Center

You are welcome to come and go as your schedule allows, but if you have a particular interest in the presentations, the schedule is as follows:

4:15-Welcome
4:30-Exploring the collections with our new search feature
4:45-New tools for using our digital resources
5:00-The distinctive sounds of the Victrola

Refreshments will be provided.

If you haven’t already, stop by the Contemporary Arts Gallery at UConn for a brand new exhibition by the  2010 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Artist-in-Residence, Alfredo Jaar.

We wish to inform you that we didn’t know
On view March 24th – April 22, 2010

Hours and more information about the exhibit is available here.

There is a TON going on in March in terms of human rights events at UConn, so mark your calendars!

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Lecture and Booksigning by Sheryl WuDunn

March 3, 2010
7 PM
Jorgenson Auditorium 

Join Sheryl WuDunn, best-selling co-author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.  This thought-provoking and profoundly inspiring book highlights how renewed focus on the world’s women and girls can lead to the end of many of the world’s ills, and reveals the cruel reality faced by women who experience violence and oppression from around the world, including, but not limited to as sex trafficking and mass rape.  As Tom Brokaw describes it, “Half the Sky is a passionate and persuasive plea to all of us to rise up and say ‘No more!’ to the 17th-century abuses to girls and women in the 21st-century world. This is a book that will pierce your heart and arouse your conscience. It is a powerful piece of journalism by two masters of the craft who are tireless in their pursuit of one of the most shameful conditions of our time.”  Lecture followed by a book signing.

Women’s Empowerment: The National Agenda in Rwanda
Guest Speaker: Dr. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya

Thursday, March 4
12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Student Union Room 304

Dr. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya is Rwanda’s Minister of Gender and Family Promotion.  Prior to this appointment, she served as Rwanda’s Minister of Education; Minister of State in Charge of Higher Education; Minister of State in Charge of Primary and Secondary Education in the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research; Administration Secretary in Charge of Hydrocarbons, Department of Energy in the Infrastructure’s Ministry, MININFRA (formerly MINITRAPE), Rwanda; and was Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Faculty of Education, Department of Biology & Chemistry at the National University of Rwanda.

Human Trafficking in the Post-Armenian Genocide Middle East and the Dilemmas of Modern Humanitarianism: A Lecture by Keith David Watenpaugh
Monday, March 15, 2010
4pm – 5:30pm
Storrs Campus
Babbidge Library, Class of ’47 Room

Drawn from Prof. Watenpaugh’s forthcoming book, Bread from Stone: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, this talk examines the League of Nations’ efforts on behalf of displaced Armenian women and children in the early post-World War I period.

Screening of Michael Moore’s Sicko (part of the Human Rights in the USA film series)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
4pm – 5:30pm
Storrs Campus
Dodd Research Center, Konover Auditorium
Admission Fee:  Free

The words “health care” and “comedy” aren’t usually found in the same sentence, but in Academy Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore’s movie ‘SiCKO,’ they go together hand in (rubber) glove.  While Moore’s ‘SiCKO’ follows the trailblazing path of previous hit films, the Oscar-winning BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and all-time box-office documentary champ FAHRENHEIT 9/11, it is also something very different for Michael Moore.  ‘SiCKO’ is a straight-from-the-heart portrait of the crazy and sometimes cruel U.S. health care system, told from the vantage of everyday people faced with extraordinary and bizarre challenges in their quest for basic health coverage.  More information available at: http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/events/hr_usa_film_series.htm

Art, Memory, and Human Rights: A Lecture by Marcelo Brodsky
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
4:30pm – 6pm
Storrs Campus
Dodd Center, Konover Auditorium

Esteemed Argentine photographer, visual artist, and human rights activist Marcelo Brodsky will present a public lecture on his recent work. His previous projects include Buena Memoria/Good Memory, a photographic tribute to family members and friends who “disappeared” during Argentina’s “Dirty War” (1976-1983); Nexo/Nexus, which draws together state terrorism and anti-Semitism in Argentina with the Holocaust; and Memory in Construction, a compilation of essays and artworks revolving around the problem of creating a Memory Museum for the victims of the “Dirty War.” Brodsky recently embarked on a new series called “Correspondencias.” More information (in English and Spanish) can be accessed on his website  at http://www.marcelobrodsky.com

The Arts and Human Rights:  Perspectives from Latin America
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
10am – 12pm
Storrs Campus
Student Union, Theater

This event features a roundtable discussion by two world famous Latin American artists, Alfredo Jaar from Chile and Marcelo Brodsky from Argentina.

Given that March 24 is the anniversary of the 1976 coup in Argentina that started the so-called “Dirty War,” Jaar and Brodsky will focus their comments on art and human rights around the topic of creating memorials to the victims of state terrorism. Jaar recently finished a commissioned piece for the brand new Museum of Memory in Santiago, Chile. This museum commemorates the thousands of lives lost to the brutality of the Pinochet dictatorship. Brodsky has been an active participant in the debates surrounding the transformation of the clandestine detention center at the Naval School of Mechanics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, operational during the “Dirty War,” into a similar memory museum. He has also edited a book on this subject.

And, don’t miss the opening of Alfredo Jaar’s new exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Gallery, and opening lecture on March 24, 2010:

Public Lecture: Alfredo Jaar
We wish to inform you that we didn’t know
March 24, 2010
4:00 PM Konover Auditorium / Dodd Center
University of Connecticut, Storrs

Exhibition: Alfredo Jaar

2010 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Artist-in-Residence
We wish to inform you that we didn’t know
On view March 24th – April 22, 2010
Reception March 24th at the Contemporary Art Galleries, 5:30 – 7:00 PM

Today is the last day of classes here at UConn, and I wanted to take a moment to offer some highlights from Fall 2009:

In October, the Human Rights Institute and UConn Law School co-hosted the Human Rights in the USA Conference.  A volume with papers from the conference will be published, so if you weren’t able to attend, you can still read about pressing human rights issues in the US, such as health care, domestic violence, discrimination, and immigration policies, just to name a few!

In November, I attended and presented at “Remembering War, Genocide and Other Human Rights Violations: Oral History, New Media and the Arts,”  an interdisciplinary conference co-organized by the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) and the Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide and Other Human Rights Violations project.

And, last night I attended a panel discussion on science and human rights, before seeing the Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo, which will be playing through Saturday, December 12, at Jorgenson Theatre at the UConn campus. 

Good luck with finals, and enjoy the winter break!  I’ll be back in January with updates about what’s new for the spring semester.

World-renowned artist and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar will be giving a presentation about his art and career at the Dodd Research Center in Konover Auditorium at 1:00pm on Wednesday, October 21st.   Jaar, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award will be creating a new human rights installation in March 2010 at the Contemporary Art Galleries at the University of Connecticut.  

Jaar’s films and art installations explore world events such as genocides, epidemics, and famines. His work bears witness to military conflicts, political corruption, and imbalances of power between industrialized and developing nations. Subjects addressed include the holocaust in Rwanda, gold mining in Brazil, toxic pollution in Nigeria, and issues related to the border between Mexico and the United States.  Jaar’s Many awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award; a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award; and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts ; and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Jaar’s talk is being cosponsored by the University of Connecticut’s Department of Art and Art History and Human Right Institute.  Catalogs of Jaar’s work are available at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.