Back to top

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."

Jacobo Timerman Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002)

Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number is a non-fiction memoir published in 1981 by the Soviet-born Argentine author Jacobo Timerman. At two in the morning of April 15, 1977, twenty armed men in civilian clothes arrested Jacobo Timerman...

Maria Hynes "Reconceptualizing resistance: Sociology and the affective dimension of resistance." The British Journal of Sociology 64, no. 4 (2013): 559-577.

This paper re-examines the sociological study of resistance in light of growing interest in the concept of affect. Recent claims that we are witness to an ‘affective turn’ and calls for a ‘new sociological empiricism’ sensitive to affect indicate an...

Denis O’Hearn "Repression and Solidary Cultures of Resistance: Irish Political Prisoners on Protest." American Journal of Sociology 115, no. 2 (2009): 491-526.

Social activists and especially insurgents have created solidary cultures of resistance in conditions of high risk and repression. One such instance is an episode of contention by Irish political prisoners in the late 1970s. The “blanketmen” appropriated and then built...

Renée Poznanski "Rescue of the Jews and the Resistance in France: From History to Historiography" (French Politics, Culture & Society, vol. 30, no. 2, 2012)

Two obstacles blocked the incorporation of the rescue of Jews in France into the Resistance movement. The first, which can be traced back to the sources of the social imaginary, had to do with the fear of stirring the old...

Wolf Gruner Resisting Persecution: Jews and Their Petitions During the Holocaust (Berghahn Books, 2020)

Since antiquity, European Jewish diaspora communities have used formal appeals to secular and religious authorities to secure favors or protection. Such petitioning took on particular significance in modern dictatorships, often as the only tool left for voicing political opposition. During...

Shannon Speed Rights in Rebellion: Indigenous Struggle and Human Rights in Chiapas (Stanford University Press, 2007)

Rights in Rebellion examines the global discourse of human rights and its influence on the local culture, identity, and forms of resistance. Through a multi-sited ethnography of various groups in the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico—from paramilitaries to a Zapatista...

Leïla Sebbar La Seine était rouge (Paris, Octobre 1961) (Editions Thierry Magnier, 1999)

Paris, 17 octobre 1961. La fin de la guerre d'Algérie est proche. En réponse au couvre-feu imposé aux Algériens par Maurice Papon, alors préfet de police, le FLN organise à Paris une manifestation pacifi que. La police charge : violences...

Andrew Ryder Sites of Resistance: Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in School, the Community and the Academy (Trentham Books, 2017)

This account of Gypsy, Roma, and Traveler policy and practice in education, social policy, and politics is enriched with reflection, theoretical analysis, and biographical narratives. It draws on the author's 25 years' experience of working as an activist, educationalist, and...

Ann Petry The Street (Houghton Mifflin, 1946)

The Street tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946...

Margaret Fenerty Schumann, Anju Mary Paul "The giving up of weekly rest-days by migrant domestic workers in Singapore: When submission is both resistance and victimhood." Social Forces 98, no. 4 (2020): 1695-1718.

Why do so few live-in migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore utilize their weekly rest-day entitlement? Using data drawn from 3,886 online profiles of prospective MDWs and 40 interview sessions with MDWs, employers, and manpower agencies, we demonstrate how the...

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.

Join our mailing list to receive a weekly digest of Pozen-related news, opportunities, and events.