.

 

Sawyer Seminar Background

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Human Rights Initiative a major grant to conduct a Sawyer Seminar on the theme of "Vulnerability and Resilience: Rethinking Human Rights for the 21st Century." The seminar series began in February 2010 and will run through April 2011. The series consists of nine distinct seminars, each a day long, that are focused on specific themes.

 

Framing Document:

For a more expansive look at the aims and purpose of the seminar, please consult this text.

 

Participant Texts:

To read participants' bios, seminar memos, and writing samples, please click here. (To obtain login and password to access the site, please email: humanrights@international.wisc.edu )

 

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Noa Vaisman was selected as the Mellon-funded post-doctoral fellow in residence for the 2010-2011 academic year. To learn more about her background and her current research projects on post-dictatorship social reconstruction in Argentina and the implications of the new sciences on human rights, click here.

 

Selected Human Rights Bibliography:

During the course of the Sawyer Seminar, participants identified resources important to their work. Those sources have been compiled into a bibliography accessible here.

 
 
Sawyer Seminar on Human Rights, 2011

Upcoming Seminar:

Friday, May 6: Rethinking Political Violence and Vulnerability

Coffee and Bagels (8:40-9:00 am)

Introduction and Seminar Overview (9:00-9:10 am)

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One (9:10-10:30 am)

Alexandra Scacco, Assistant Professor

New York University

Andrew Linke, PhD Candidate

University of Colorado at Boulder

Meghan Lynch, PhD Candidate

Yale University

 

Panel Two (10:40 am-12:00 pm)

Brett Logan Carter, PhD Candidate

Harvard University

Sheena Chestnut, PhD Candidate

Harvard University

Catered Lunch (12:00 - 12:30 pm)

Discussants and Concluding Remarks (12:30-2:00 pm)

To read participants' bios, seminar memos, and writing samples, please click here. For access to the site, please email humanrights@international.wisc.edu.

 

Past Seminars:

Friday, April 22: Rethinking Transitional Justice

313 University Club

Coffee and Bagels (8:40-9:00 am)

Introduction and Seminar Overview (9:00-9:10 am)

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One (9:10-10:30 am)

Jo-Marie Burt, Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs

George Mason University

Lars Waldorf, Senior Lecturer in International Human Rights Law

University of York

Panel Two (10:40 am-12:00 pm)

Bronwyn Leebaw, Assistant Professor of Political Science

University of California, Riverside

Adam Sitze, Assitant Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought

Amherst College

Catered Lunch (12:00 - 12:30 pm)

Discussants and Concluding Remarks (12:30-2:00 pm)

 

January 28: What is the Human? Human Rights and Developments in Technology and the Life Sciences

313 University Club

Coffee and Bagels (8:30-8:45 am)

Introduction and Seminar Overview (8:45-9:00 am)

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Noa Vaisman, Human Rights Initiative Post-Doctoral Fellow

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel One (9:00-10:20 am)

Andrew Lakoff

Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Communication

University of Southern California

Jay D. Aronson, Associate Professor of History

Carnegie Mellon University

Panel Two (10:30 am-12:00 pm)

Charis Thompson, Professor of Gender & Women's Studies

University of California, Berkeley

Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology

University of Chicago

Catered Lunch (12:00 - 12:30 pm)

Discussants and Concluding Remarks (12:30-2:30 pm)

Linda Hogle, Professor of Medical History & Bioethics, UW-Madison

Richard Keller, Associate Professor of Medical History and the History of Science, UW-Madison

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science, HRI Director, UW-Madison

Noa Vaisman, Human Rights Initiative Post-Doctoral Fellow, UW-Madison

December 3: Rethinking Human Rights and the Environment

3250 Law School

Introduction and Seminar Overview

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One

Richard Hiskes, Professor of Political Science

University of Connecticut

Hari Osofsky, Associate Professor of Law

University of Minnesota

Panel Two

Philippe Cullet, Professor of International and Environmental Law

University of London

Sumudu Atapattu, Global Legal Studies Associate Director

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussion

November 12: Rethinking the History of Human Rights

Room 313, University Club

Introduction and Seminar Overview

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One

Sam Moyn, Professor of History

Columbia University

Eric Weitz, Distinguished McKnight Professor of History

University of Minnesota

Panel Two

Geoffrey Robinson, Professor of History

UCLA

Ann Marie Wilson

Harvard University

Discussion

October 29: Innovative Advocacy Campaigns

Room 313, University Club Building

Introduction and Seminar Overview

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One

David Petrasek, Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs

University of Ottawa

Michel Feher

Cette France-La and College de Philosophie, Paris

Panel Two

Bridget Conley-Zilkic, Project Director for the Committee on Conscience

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Fuyuki Kurasawa, Associate Professor of Sociology

York University

Discussion

April 16: Representation and Human Rights

Ogg Room, 422 North Hall

Introduction and Seminar Overview

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One

Anne Aghion, Filmmaker

Noa Vaisman, Lecturer - Human Rights Program

University of Chicago

Panel Two

Joseph Slaughter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Columbia University

Michael Goodhart, Associate Professor of Political Science

University of Pittsburgh

Discussion

This event was co-sponsored by the Center for European Studies.

March 12: Resilience and Human Rights

Ogg Room, 422 North Hall

Introduction and Seminar Overview

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One

Paul Gready, Director of the Center for Applied Human Rights

University of York

Molly Todd, Assistant Professor of History

Augustana College

Panel Two

Dyan Mazurana, Director of Gender, Youth and Community Program

Fletcher School, Tufts University

Nancy Kendall, Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Miriam Thangaraj

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussion

February 5: Vulnerability and Human Rights

Ogg Room, 422 North Hall

Introduction and Seminar Overview

Scott Straus, Associate Professor of Political Science

Director of the Human Rights Initiative, UW-Madison

Panel One

Patrick Vinck, Director of Initiative for Vulnerable Populations

Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley

Michael Carter, Professor of Agricultural & Resource Economics

University of California, Davis

Panel Two

Sally Merry, Professor of Anthropology

New York University

Harri Englund, University Lecturer in Social Anthropology

University of Cambridge

Discussion