Dr. Novy Represents Inter-American Institute for Youth Justice at 'Human Rights at UT' Conference
April 2, 2009
AUSTIN, Texas - 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, "Human Rights at UT: A Dialogue at the Intersection of Academics and Advocacy," held at the Texas Union on the University of Texas campus.
This fifth annual conference presented by the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas School of Law engaged faculty, staff, students, and advocates in dialogue, reflection, and evaluation of the diversity of international and transnational human rights issues in which University of Texas campuses are involved.
The Inter-American Institute for Youth Justice (Justice4Youth) co-directed by Novy and Dr. David Springer, School of Social Work Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, is dedicated to serving youth in conflict with the law. The purpose of the institute is to assist local, national, and multi-national groups to respond proactively to issues of delinquency and youth violence.
Novy, a research associate professor in the School of Social Work, with Alison Fader-Brock, social work graduate student and Justice4Youth Research Assistant, presented "The Inter-American Institute for Youth Justice: Brazil and Juvenile Justice" during the conference's poster session.
The focus on Brazil accents recent institute work. "The conference was an excellent opportunity for us to introduce to a larger human rights, law, and youth advocacy audience what the institute is all about," Novy said. The poster developed for the conference depicts two pictures inside an "award winning," high restriction juvenile detention facility in one of Brazil's southeastern states. According to Novy, the two photos serving as backdrop in the poster represent this particular state's commitment to improving residential services for incarcerated youth. Novy added, however, "It also communicates a continued reliance on an adult prison model to house juvenile offenders."
Conference organizers said they planned to use the conference to consider the state of human rights theory and practice and their possible trajectories over the coming years and examine how participants in academic institutions in Texas are poised to address the future of human rights through research, teaching, and advocacy.
This event was cosponsored by the UT Libraries, the Performing Arts Center, the Humanities Institute, South Asia Institute, the Office of Thematic Initiatives and Community Engagement, Ethnic and Third World Literatures in the Department of English, and the Office of the Vice-Provost for Health Affairs.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Forrest Novy
Investigator and Co-Director, Inter-American Institute for Youth Justice,
512-450-1757
fnovy@mail.utexas.edu