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The virtual human rights library brings together resources from multiple libraries and information services, both internal and external, to create an online hub dedicated to the study of human rights. This curation is unique in its interdisciplinary concerns and focuses on writings and research from social sciences, humanities, and law.

The virtual library is continually updated with the latest academic research in issue areas, as well as with relevant films, recorded conversations, and other forms of media.

Searchable Database

Click into the dropdowns to select the disciplines, keywords, and media type for your search, and then hit "Apply."

Philippe Bourgois "Confronting Anthropological Ethics: Ethnographic Lessons from Central America" Journal of Peace Research, Feb., 1990, Vol. 27, No. 1 pp. 43-54

The concern with ethics in North American cultural anthropology discourages political economy research on unequal power relations and other 'dangerous' subjects. US anthropologists define ethics in narrow, largely methodological terms - informed consent, respect for traditional institutions, responsibility to future...

Sundhya Pahuja Decolonising International Law: Development, Economic Growth and the Politics of Universality (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

The universal promise of contemporary international law has long inspired countries of the Global South to use it as an important field of contestation over global inequality. Taking three central examples, Sundhya Pahuja argues that this promise has been subsumed...

Aimé Césaire Discourse on Colonialism (Monthly Review Press, 2001)

“First published in 1950 as Discours sur le colonialisme, it appeared just as the old worlds were on the verge of collapse, thanks in part to a world war against fascism that left Europe in material, spiritual and philosophical shambles...

Robert Gildea Empires of the Mind: The Colonial Past and the Politics of the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

"The empires of the future would be the empires of the mind" declared Churchill in 1943, envisaging universal empires living in peaceful harmony. Robert Gildea exposes instead the brutal realities of decolonisation and neo-colonialism which have shaped the postwar world. Even...

C. L. Quinan Hybrid Anxieties: Queering the French-Algerian War and its Postcolonial Legacies (University of Nebraska Press, 2020)

Situated at the crossroads of queer theory and postcolonial studies, Hybrid Anxieties analyzes the intertwined and composite aspects of identities and textual forms in the wake of the French-Algerian War (1954–1962). C. L. Quinan argues that the war precipitated a dynamic in...

B. S. Chimni International Law and World Order: A Critique of Contemporary Approaches (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

In International Law and World Order, B. S. Chimni articulates an integrated Marxist approach to international law (IMAIL), combining the insights of Marxism, socialist feminism, and postcolonial theory. The book uses IMAIL to systematically and critically examine the most...

Achille Mbembe Necropolitics (Duke University Press, 2019)

 In Necropolitics, Achille Mbembe theorizes the genealogy of the contemporary world, a world plagued by ever-increasing inequality, militarization, enmity, and terror as well as by a resurgence of racist, fascist, and nationalist forces determined to exclude and kill. He outlines...

Charles Forsdick, Etienne Achille, Lydie Moudileno Postcolonial Realms of Memory: Sites and Symbols in Modern France (Liverpool University Press, 2020)

Recognized as one of the most influential studies of memory in the late twentieth century, Pierre Nora's monumental project Les Lieux de mémoire has been celebrated for its elaboration of a ground-breaking paradigm for rethinking the relationship between the nation...

Please Note:

While the Virtual Library is now live for use, we are still working to update its contents and improve its functionality.  

It is usable by all visitors, but the hyperlinks to materials listed are for UChicago community members with a CNet ID and password.  

Please direct feedback and suggestions to Kathleen Cavanaugh

For technical assistance, email pozenhumanrights @ uchicago.edu.

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