The University of Texas at Austin

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice

Partners for change at the intersection of academics and advocacy.


Conferences

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Audience members fill the Eidman Courtroom at the UT School of Law, for the Conference on Gender, Globalization and Governance, organized by students of the LBJ School and co-sponsored by the Rapoport Center.

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center has made strong efforts to explore the intersection of international human rights study and advocacy through the hosting of various conferences. The Rapoport Center also engages human rights faculty, staff and students in dialogue, reflection, and evaluation of the diversity of international and transnational human rights issues in which UT campuses are involved. The Center hopes to use these conferences to consider the state of human rights theory and practice and their possible future trajectories.

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(From left to right) Panelists Nicholas Bruckman, director and producer of La Americana, Alvaro Restrepo, founder and co-director of El Colegio Del Cuerpo in Cartagena, Colombia, and Mary Ann Bruni, filmmaker and photographer, discuss "Artists as Agents of Justice" at the fifth annual human rights conference.

Spring 2009 Conference – Human Rights at UT: A Dialogue at the Intersection of Academics and Advocacy

The 2008-2009 school year marks the five-year anniversary of the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center’s efforts to explore the intersection of international human rights academics and advocacy. To commemorate this milestone, the Center’s 5th annual human rights conference considered human rights work in the University of Texas system. This event was co-sponsored by the UT Libraries, South Asia Institute, the Humanities Institute, the Performing Arts Center, the Office of Thematic Initiatives and Community Engagement, the Office of the Vice-Provost for Health Affairs, and Ethnic and Third World Literature in the Department of English.

Human Rights at UT: A Dialogue at the Intersection of Academics and Advocacy, was held on March 26-28, 2009, and engaged human rights faculty, staff and students in dialogue, reflection, and evaluation of the diversity of international and transnational human rights issues in which UT campuses are involved. We also used the conference to consider the state of human rights theory and practice and their possible future trajectories. How are we, as participants in academic institutions in Texas, uniquely poised to address the future of human rights through our research, teaching and advocacy?

The Center invited proposals from faculty and students at all campuses in the UT system to participate through a variety of media, including oral and poster presentations of academic research, round-table panel discussions, and performances and other forms of artistic expression. For purposes of the conference, human rights were broadly defined, although topics all had an international, comparative or transnational component.

Articles and Media Coverage


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James Smith (second panelist from right), director of Aegis Trust, speaks on the panel "Rwanda's Memory: What Will Tomorrow's Generation Know?" with (from left to right) UT Libraries Vice Provost and Director Fred Heath, UT student Anjela Jenkins, San Antonio College Fellow Henriette Mutegwaraba, Bridgeway Foundation partner Shannon Sedgwick-Davis, and UT Libraries archivist Christian Kelleher.

  • April 2, 2009: Dr. Novy Represents Inter-American Institute for Youth Justice at 'Human Rights at UT' Conference, School of Social Work News
    Dr. Forrest Novy, Investigator and Co-Director of the Inter-American Institute for Youth Justice, a unit of the Center for Social Work Research, School of Social Work, was invited to attend the March 26-28 conference.

  • April 2009: English Honors Program students present at the conference for "Human Rights at the University of Texas: A Dialogue at the Intersection of Academics and Advocacy," Department of English News
    Students of Professor Harlow's honors seminar on literature and social justice presented at the event.

  • March 30, 2009: Panelists highlight human-rights issues’ future at conference, The Daily Texan
    Five human rights leaders shared their experiences with University students and professors at the Texas Union’s Santa Rita Room on Sunday.

  • March 29, 2009: Texas-Mexico border fence will hurt poor on both sides, UT panelists say, The Austin American-Statesman
    Some indigenous groups' way of life also will be threatened, researchers fear.

  • March 27, 2009: Human rights conference tackles community issues, The Daily Texan
    Organizers ask students to submit suggestions for fifth annual forum.

    • For more information, please visit the conference website.

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    Alejandro Moreno (far left), Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Program at the UT Medical Branch, discusses the importance of recognizing health care as a human right and humanizing global economic policy, alongside fellow panelists Neville Hoad (center), Associate Professor of English, and Alexandra B. Nolen (right), Acting Director of the Center to Eliminate Health Disparities, and Associate Director of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for Training in International Health at the UT Medical Branch.

    Past Conferences