Note from the Duke Human Rights Center@the Franklin Humanities Institute
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We're writing as co-directors and staff of the Duke Human Rights Center@the Franklin Humanities Institute. Like other units at Duke, we've closed our offices and are working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Professors are continuing to teach their classes on-line. Students are thinking about remote finals and papers. Duke's health care workers are working hard to care for all of the patients coming in for treatment on campus.
Across the country and the world, hundreds of thousands of people are working hard and sometimes risking their lives to combat this virus. These include many Duke alumni, whether they are in the health or legal professions, helping stock food banks, delivering needed supplies, or performing other fundamental tasks.
We share the sadness of graduating seniors, including our Human Rights Certificate students, at having to postpone graduation ceremonies. We were looking forward to celebrating with you (it's one of our favorite things). But we will find a way to honor and celebrate all of your hard work. We also know that we will continue to be touch.
In times like this, it's more important than ever to recognize and support those making positive change. That's part of what we want our students to learn: how to think about and make change and how to incorporate that thinking into any career they choose. These times are trying; yet we have always, in many ways, confronted trying times. What's important is that we not be defeated by them, that we look for ways to stand up for people and for their rights.
On this, we stand with Mr. Rogers:
Fred Rogers often told this story about when he was a boy and would see scary things on the news: “My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”
Stay safe, wash your hands, and we look forward to seeing you back on campus in the fall.
Robin Kirk, Erika Weinthal, and Emily Stewart
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Meet 10 of the 2020 Human Rights Certificate Seniors
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The Human Rights Certificate offers students an in-depth and rigorous interdisciplinary study of human rights history, theory and practice, cultivating life-long learners and engaged citizens who have a deep and nuanced understanding of human rights. This year, 40 students are enrolled in the Human Rights Certificate program, and this page features 10 of 19 of the Human Rights Certificate Class of 2020. This years’ senior include: Libby Wheeler, Semhal Araya, Donovan Bendana, MacKenzi Simpson, Isabel Shepard, Cara Kim, Alicia Porile, Imani Hicks, Madeline Cochrane, Sonali Mehta, Stephanie Mayle, Tea Hughes, Camille Ampey, Spencer Bandeen, Daisy Almonte, Kevin Soloman, Gino Nuzzolillo, Tyler Kopp, and Sujeiry Jimenez. Read more about their experiences in the program
here
. More interviews coming soon!
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Submit your paper or project for the 2020 Oliver W. Koonz Human Rights Prize - Now Due by April 20
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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.
Please send submissions to
Emily Stewart
by April 20, 2020
.
An
essay
must be no longer than 25 double-spaced pages. Whether it is a critical essay, research paper, or personal essay, a submission must:
- identify the particular human rights principle(s) involved
- formulate your topic question
- explain your approach
- critically discuss relevant research
- arrive at a conclusion
A
project
can be a photographic essay, a play script or short story, a documentary video, a web page, a phone app, a visualization of data or other original approach to confronting a human rights question.
For a glimpse into the stories of the recipients of the 2019 Oliver W. Koonz Prize, read more
here
.
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Check out the 2020 Fall Human Rights Courses
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Each semester, Duke offers undergraduates dozens of courses related to global human rights issues. The courses come from a variety of disciplines, including history, public policy, economics, African and African American studies and cultural anthropology, among others. This reflects the interdisciplinary nature of human rights as well as the approach of the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute.
This Fall there are 30 Human Rights courses to choose from. Here is a sample of the courses that are being offered:
Israel/Palestine: Comparative Perspectives; African Americans, Mass Incarceration and Citizenship; Immigrant Dreams, U.S. Realities; Language and Society; and Social Movements and Social Media.
Read about the
featured courses
or peruse the
full list
.
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Joseph Slaughter | Naming the Crisis: The Language of Human Rights and the Neoliberal Turn
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On February 20th, Dr. Joseph Slaughter gave the annual Rights and the Humanities Lecture, “Naming the Crisis: The Language of Human Rights and the Neoliberal Turn." This lecture was organized by the Duke Human Rights Center@FHI and the Franklin Humanities Institute, with support from the Duke University English Department, Program in Literature, and the International Human Rights Clinic at Duke Law.
Joseph R. Slaughter teaches postcolonial literature and theory, human rights, and narrative approaches to international law in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. His book Human Rights, Inc: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law, won the René Wellek Prize for Comparative Literature and Cultural Theory.
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Small fish, big problems: Gender based violence in Lake Victoria’s fisheries
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Hillary Smith's (2017 Human Rights Summer Research Grantee/Ph.D. candidate Marine Science and Conservation)
blog post
"
Small fish, big problems: Gender-based violence in Lake Victoria’s fisheries
" was cited in a recent IUCN report
Gender-based Violence and Environment Linkages
. Hillary's work was cited in the report's discussion of the invisibility of women in the fishing sector. Her research on shifting gender relations in Lake Victoria's fisheries also highlights the ways women are organizing in response to systemic inequities in Tanzania.
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Updates from the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice: Elders & Empires: Community Care in a Time of Crisis
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What is Pauli Murray calling us to do in this time of crisis?
by Rev. Racquel Gill
In 2015, as a recent seminary graduate, I was blessed to serve as a Pastor in Residence at the St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY. St. Paul is a church that seeks to live out its Christian values from an Afrocentric lens and is commonly known for its commemoration of the MAAFA. The term MAAFA is a Kiswahili term meaning, “The Great Disaster.” During the season of MAAFA, the congregation performs ritual and ceremonies acknowledging the impact of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and honoring ancestors who have transitioned from the earthly realm. The entire MAAFA Suite is amazing, offering theatrical performances, an on-site museum, lectures, and spirited preaching.
Read more
.
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Duke Libraries continue to provide research support remotely
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A digital resource:
Duke Human Rights Archive: Digital Collections for Remote Access
has been added to the human rights libgide providing information on Rubenstein Library’s digital and digitized collections, collections with digital content that can be requested remotely, and digital exhibits. You can access it from
here
. There are many other repositories out there offering digital content and I’m happy to help researchers discover them. Library staff also continue to conduct research consultations.
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COVID-19: Advancing Rights and Justice During a Pandemic:
The impacts of the novel coronavirus are being felt across the world, and in all domains of our lives, from physical and mental health, to job security, housing, and family life. Existing inequalities are more visible than ever, with the burdens of the crisis falling on some much more than others. Some governments are exploiting the crisis to crackdown on civil liberties. This series brings together scholars and practitioners to discuss the threats we face, and how we might respond.
The series is organized by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, Duke Law’s International Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, and Just Security. Check this
page
for all upcoming events in this series.
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Student access to computers and WiFi:
Now that classes have started, and I’m not on campus, I’m having internet connection problems. What about undergraduates who do not have access to computers and/or internet beyond Duke? Can I get a mobile WiFi hotspot and/or a computer? Please submit
this application
for remote access assistance.
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Fall 2020 Duke Immerse - Governance, Policy, and Society (GPS):
The
Governance, Policy, and Society (GPS)
Duke Immerse theme is a research-intensive semester-long examination of politics, policymaking, and social interactions in urban settings. GPS uses three U.S. cities, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Durham, and two cities in South Africa, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, as case studies and sites for student fieldwork. In both the U.S. and South Africa, racial and class divisions and group-based disparities remain prominent features of the urban landscape, despite the formal barriers of segregation having come down, 60 years ago in the U.S., and two-and-a-half decades ago in South Africa. The persistence of these various divisions and disparities has serious implications for community cohesion, race relations, public health, education, and general economic and social development. Read more
here
.
Apply today! Accepting
applications
now for Fall 2020 until all slots are filled; for more information, contact Professor
Kerry Haynie
.
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Fall 2020 Duke Immerse - Imagining the Future of Food:
This Duke Immerse takes the premise that cultural narratives have real world impacts and that increased extreme weather events associated with climate change must be addressed in part through changes in the food system. Imagining the Future of Food combines coursework, experiential learning at the
Duke Campus Farm
and short field-based learning in North Carolina and California to ask: where will our food come from in the year 2067? Will we have what we need to nourish a growing global population? How will climate change impact how we feed ourselves? Read more
here
.
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EG Justice Now Hiring Operations & Communications Associate:
EG Justice is seeking an Operations & Communications Associate. From the job description: "We’re a small team of social justice advocates dedicated to promoting human rights, the rule of law and transparency in Equatorial Guinea, a Spanish-speaking country in West Central Africa. We believe that citizens have the right to participate fully in electing the government that represents them, and in holding officials accountable for human rights violations, corruption, and abuse of power. We promote civic participation toward more democratic and good government through a combination of research, local engagement, and global legal and policy advocacy." View the full
Job Description
and the
EG Justice Website
.
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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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