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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."

Jianglin Li 1959 拉薩! (New Century Press, 2010)

1959年3月10日,拉薩數萬民眾包圍達賴喇嘛的夏宮羅布林卡,阻止他按照原定計劃前往西藏軍區司令部觀看文藝演出。隨後民眾集會遊行,喊出了要求解放軍撤出西藏,要求西藏獨立的口號。那天在拉薩發生的事,史稱「1959年拉薩事件」。事件導致未滿24歲的西藏政教領袖,時任全國人大常委會副委員長、西藏自治區籌委會主任的第十四世達賴喇嘛丹增嘉措率家人和噶廈政府部分主要官員,於17日深夜離開羅布林卡,經過兩周跋涉,翻越喜馬拉雅山,前往印度尋求政治庇護。

本書是以 細緻入微的研究以及公正的立場揭示「1959年拉薩事件」歷史真相的開創性作品。

On March 10th, 1959, tens of thousands of people surrounded Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's summer palace in Lhasa, preventing him from attending a prescheduled theater performance at the headquarters of the Tibetan Military Region. Soon afterwards, the...

Edward Berenson The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town (Norton, 2019)

On Saturday, September 22, 1928, Barbara Griffiths, age four, strayed into the woods surrounding the upstate village of Massena, New York. Hundreds of people looked everywhere for the child but could not find her. At one point, someone suggested that...

June Jordan "Apologies to All the People in Lebanon" The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Cooper Canyon Press, 2005)

Evelyn P. Garfield, Ivan A. Schulman, Juan Francisco Manzano Autobiography of a Slave / Autobiografia De Un Esclavo (Wayne State University Press, 1996)

Juan Francisco Manzano (1797-1854), an urban slave who taught himself to read and write, and who ultimately achieved fame as a poet in Cuba's colonial slave society, wrote the only known autobiographical account of Latin American slavery. His narrative, composed...

Toni Morrison Beloved (Vintage Press, 2004)

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new...

Martha Minow Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence (Beacon Press, 1998)

With Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, Martha Minow, Harvard law professor and one of our most brilliant and humane legal minds, offers a landmark book on justice and healing after horrific violence. Remembering and forgetting, judging and forgiving, reconciling and avenging...

Elaine Scarry The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (Oxford University Press, 1987)

Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, The Body in Pain is a profoundly original study that stirred excitement in a wide range of intellectual circles. The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies...

Baris Cayli Messina "Breaking the silence on femicide: How women challenge epistemic injustice and male violence." The British Journal of Sociology 73, no. 4 (2022): 859-884.

Digital space has provided an important platform for women by enabling them to defy religious and patriarchal values while rendering their demands more visible in the public sphere. By analyzing the stories of 3349 murdered women, consulting 57 activist‐published materials...

Helmut Walser Smith The Butcher's Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town (Norton, 2002)

In 1900, in a small Prussian town, a young boy was found murdered, his body dismembered, the blood drained from his limbs. The Christians of the town quickly rose up in violent riots to accuse the Jews of ritual murder--the...

Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard Chassez les papillons noirs: Récit d'une survivante des camps de la mort nazis (Le Manuscrit and Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, 2011)

For over 25 years, Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard has tirelessly recounted what she endured during the Second World War, especially to young people. How she and her mother escaped from the Vél’ d’Hiv’ on the first night after the round-up on July...

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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