Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Richard & Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights - Spring Quarter 2011

The Human Rights Program and the College are pleased to announce that Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen will be the Richard & Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights in Spring Quarter 2011. Professor Stavenhagen represents the sort of mixture of academic excellence and public practice that the Pozen professorship seeks to recognize. Professor Stavenhagen is a world-renowned authority on the rights of indigenous people. In addition to his academic activities, in 2001 he was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, a position he held until 2008.

Rodolfo Stavenhagen grew up in Mexico where he and his German-Jewish refugee parents had fled just prior to the outbreak of World War 2. In the late 1940s he was sent to the College of the University of Chicago where he earned an A.B. degree in 1951 and learned to speak English with a Chicago accent. Professor Stavenhagen has said that his interest in human rights was sparked at the University of Chicago where as a College student he met distinguished visitors Eleanor Roosevelt and W.E.B. DuBois.

Professor Stavenhagen has had a notable career in both the academy and in the protection of international human rights. He has been a member of the faculty of the Colegio de Mexico since 1965 and a visiting professor at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Paris. He has served as President of the Latin American network of social science research institutions FLACSO (Facultad LatinoAmericano de Ciencias Sociales) and on the board of the Social Sciences Research Council. He has received numerous recognitions for his academic work from institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

In the field of human rights, in addition to his period as Special Rapporteur, he has served on various commissions for the United Nations and other international organizations including the International Labor Organization. He has served on the boards of many NGOs and has advised intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, and philanthropic foundations on the rights of the indigenous. He was a founding member and first President of Mexico's first human rights NGO, the Mexican Human Rights Academy, and has also served on the governmental Human Rights Commission.

The College, the Office of the Provost, and the Human Rights Program are delighted to welcome Professor Stavenhagen for the Spring Quarter when he will teach a five-week course (March 28 - April 29, 2011) on the human rights of indigenous peoples, entitled "Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples in the New Millenium", which will include three public lectures (details below). For more information about Professor Stavenhagen and his forthcoming visit (including details of his course and information on requesting meetings), please contact Sarah Patton Moberg at the Human Rights Program at spmoberg@uchicago.edu or 773-834-0957.

 

The University of Chicago Human Rights Program presents:

Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples in the New Millennium

A lecture series by
Rodolfo Stavenhagen
Richard and Ann Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights, University of Chicago
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2000 - 2008)
Professor Emeritus in Sociology, El Colegio de México

6 to 7:30 pm on Wednesdays: April 6, April 13, and April 20, 2011
Social Science Research Building, Room 122
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Wednesday, April 6:
"Are universal human rights for everybody? The Nation-State and the Vanishing Indians"

Wednesday, April 13:
"Anti-Colonialism and the Struggle for Indigenous Rights"

Wednesday, April 20:
"The Confessions of a Special Rapporteur: the United Nations and the Search for Justice"

Rodolfo Stavenhagen first got interested in human rights as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago where his German Jewish parents (refugees in Mexico) had sent him to study in the late 1940s. At Chicago, he met both Eleanor Roosevelt and W.E.B. DuBois who had come to talk to students about the new Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Stavenhagen went on to a notable career in the academy and in the protection of human rights. His major area of scholarship and advocacy has been the rights of indigenous peoples in the Americas and around the world. He has been on the faculty of the Colegio de Mexico since 1965 and a visiting professor at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Paris. He has served as President of the Latin American network FLACSO (Facultad LatinoAmericano de Ciencias Sociales) and on the board of the Social Sciences Research Council. He has received numerous recognitions for his academic work from institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

In the field of human rights, Stavenhagen was a founding member and first President of Mexico's first human rights NGO, the Mexican Human Rights Academy, and has also served on the governmental Human Rights Commission. He has served on various commissions for the United Nations and other international organizations including the International Labor Organization. He has served on the boards of many NGOs and has advised intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, and philanthropic foundations on the rights of the indigenous.

This lecture series is free and open to the public. (Lectures will be in English.)

Sponsored by the University of Chicago Human Rights Program, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Katz Center for Mexican Studies