Winner of the Juan E. Méndez Book Award Announced |
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The Condor Trials: Transnational Repression and Human Rights in South America (Yale University Press, 2022) by Francesca Lessa is the winner of the 2023 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. The judges were unanimous in their choice of the winner. Lessa will accept the award and talk about her work on Wednesday, February 22, at 5 pm in The Garage at Smith Warehouse on the Duke University campus.
This is the fourteenth year of this prestigious award. The award is supported by the Duke Human Rights Center@the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Human Rights Archive at the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscripts Library.
Through the voices of survivors and witnesses, human rights activists, judicial actors, journalists, and historians, The Condor Trials unravels the secrets of transnational repression masterminded by South American dictators between 1969 and 1981. Under Operation Condor, they kidnapped, tortured, and murdered hundreds of exiles. South America became a zone of terror and impunity for those who perpetuated the violence.
Lessa shows how networks of justice seekers transcended national borders to win justice for victims. Based on extensive fieldwork, archival research, trial ethnography, and over one hundred interviews, The Condor Trials explores South America’s past and present and sheds light on ongoing struggles for justice as its societies come to terms with the unparalleled atrocities of their not-so-distant pasts.
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Rights! Camera! Action! Film Series |
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Now in its thirteenth year, the Duke Human Rights Center’s Rights! Camera! Action! film series features documentaries focused on human rights-related themes across the globe. Our Spring 2023 screenings of Reversing Roe and Nasrin aim to provide an opportunity to connect the Rubenstein Library’s extensive holdings on human rights and social justice to the Duke and Durham community.
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On January 19th, the Duke Human Rights Center held a film screening of Reversing Roe. Through interviews with abortion rights supporters and opponents, the documentary lifts the lid on a decades-long political campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade. After the film, DHRC Program Coordinator Corin Zaragoza moderated a panel between Anna Muthalaly (Co-President, Duke Planned Parenthood) and Justine (Representative, Carolina Abortion Fund). Panelists discussed the link between abortion and race, the issue of safety in reproductive rights advocacy work, and how young people can work to reinstate Roe v. Wade.
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The Rights! Camera! Action! Film Series continues in the Spring semester Nasrin on March 8 (International Women's Day). Nasrin is an immersive portrait of one of the world's most courageous human rights activists and political prisoners, Nasrin Sotoudeh, and of Iran's remarkably resilient women's rights movement. Our post-screening discussion will feature Yasaman Baghban and Mandana Naviafar, two Duke graduate students from Iran. More information about the film screening can be found on our website.
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DHRC interns Gargi Mahadeshwar and Rahel Petros have completed interviews with three of our 2019 Duke Human Rights Certificate alumni. Click on the links below to read about how our alumni have used their education from the Human Rights Certificate to advance their careers and contribute to society. |
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Trey Walk is a Program Manager at Groundwork Project, an organization that funds and supports grassroots community organizers in parts of the country that tend to get written off by Democrats and progressives. He earned a B.A. in History with a certificate in Human Rights Studies from Duke in 2019.
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Grace Cai is a Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student at Fuller Theological Seminary; her dissertation is on the moderating effects of activism and critical consciousness-raising on the relationship between racial discrimination and well-being among Asian Americans. She earned a B.A. in Global Health, a B.A. in Psychology, and a certificate in Human Rights Studies from Duke in 2019.
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Cara Leigh Downey is a Refugee School Impact Coordinator at World Relief Durham, where she works with families who have recently been resettled in the United States with the goal of helping them independently navigate Durham Public Schools. She earned a B.A. in Public Policy and a certificate in Human Rights Studies from Duke in 2019.
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Current undergraduates are invited to enter essays or projects related to human rights in our annual Oliver W. Koonz Human Rights Prize competition. The Duke Human Rights Center@FHI awards one $500 prize to the winners in each category. All submissions must include a paragraph introducing the paper or project, listing any co-authors and noting whether it was created in a course. A submission does not have to be developed in the context of a course, but if it was, please note the course title. Whether or not it is connected to a course, an essay or project must be completed during the time the student is enrolled at Duke. |
Currently enrolled Duke undergraduate and graduate students are invited to apply for summer research funding from the Duke Human Rights Center@FHI. The goals of the grant are to strengthen global research opportunities for students interested in developing, implementing, and working in human rights. Special consideration is given to students whose research projects contribute to a senior thesis or project, or to students enrolled in the Human Rights Certificate. Students are encouraged to seek supplementary funding to complete their planned research needs from other Duke sources.
Last summer's grantees interviewed migrants in Mexico and Guatemala, researched health disparities in modern midwifery, delved into the roots of genocide in China, and traveled to south India to talk with with young people living with diabetes.
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The Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Institute brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, staff and students to promote new understandings about global human rights issues. |
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