Past events are organized by academic year. If an event was organized as part of a faculty project, a description may also be found under Projects.
2019
UChicago Common Book Initiative Faculty Panel
Pozen Center Faculty Director Mark Bradley and Faculty Board Members Kimberly Kay Hoang and Adom Getachew will be participating in a faculty panel on The Best We Can Do, as a part of UChicago's Common Book Initiative. The panelists will explore ways in which the graphic novel approaches the politics of migration, citizenship, and the right of asylum.
Intimate Provocations: Theorizing Consent in the Age of #MeToo
How are contemporary debates about consent shaping conceptions of intimacy, bodily autonomy, and moral decision making? How has the concept of consent been mobilized to garner support for political movements including and beyond #MeToo? This one-day conference draws together scholars working both domestically and internationally to critically examine the social and political impacts of consent discourses in the wake of #MeToo. Plenary speakers are Ashwini Tambe (University of Maryland, Women's Studies) and Joseph Fischel (Yale University, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies). The conference also features two graduate student panels with faculty discussants Natacha Nsabimana (Anthropology) and Michele Friedner (Comparative Human Development). Cosponsored by Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Department of Comparative Human Development.
The Tokyo Tribunal with Kirsten Sellars, Australian National University
Join the Center for East Asian Studies and the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights at the East Asia: Transregional Histories Workshop on April 11, 2019 for a lecture on the Tokyo Tribunal and its controversial attempts to prosecute “crimes against peace” (now known as the “crime of aggression”). At the center of conversation will be an effort to engage with the jurisprudential theme: can retroactive law ever be justified? Kirsten Sellars is Visiting Fellow at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University, author of ‘Crimes against Peace’ and International Law, and editor of Trials for International Crimes in Asia.
The Human Rights Crisis in Xinjiang
The status of Western China’s Muslim minorities has long been a sensitive point in Chinese domestic policy. But in the past two years, state pressure on these communities has drastically increased. Most notoriously, large numbers of Uyghurs and Kazakhs have been forcibly taken to internment camps that the Chinese government terms “re-education” camps, and that activists describe as concentration camps. The arrests have had a profoundly chilling effect on traditionally Muslim communities in the region. Major cultural figures and ordinary citizens have vanished with no trace, while those who remain have been cowed into silence. The government frames this detention as a necessary measure for combating dangerous extremism, while activists say detainees have been targeted for activities as innocuous as travel abroad or religious observance. This panel brings together activists, policy experts, and leading scholars on the human rights crisis in Xinjiang.
"Who will speak if you don't": Conversation with Vietnamese political blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, know by her pen name Mẹ Nấm (Mother Mushroom), is a Vietnamese blogger who drew attention for criticizing the Communist Party - controlled government. In 2017, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “propaganda against the state”. In October 2018, Quynh was released in a freedom-for-exile deal. Now in the U.S, she vows to continue highlighting abuses to her home country. “I was totally terrified and I decided to keep silent,” she says. “But then after that, I realized... if you know what it is that you are afraid of, then you can go and do exactly what you wish to do.” (The guardians and the war on truth, TIMES, December 2018) Mẹ Nấm will tell us her story of gaining political awareness and becoming a political and environmental activist in Vietnam. She will also share with us how she intends to continue to contribute to democracy in Vietnam from the USA where she now lives.
Cognitive Evolutionary Foundations of Conflict
More info here.Philosophers and emotion researchers have long known that the emotions anger and hatred are - at least in part - distinct from one another. By using evolutionary theory and analyzing the reproductive problems faced by our ancestors, we can derive functional accounts of both of these emotions. In this seminar, Aaron Sell and Anthony Lopez will discuss how these two emotions are triggered and moderated by distinct situational cues that regulate a range of direct and indirect retaliatory responses, including but not limited to what might be called “revenge."
Ethical Refugee Community Development
More info here.Join us for a discussion with Dr. Ifrah Magan (SSA '11) on how to ensure that humanitarian work, specifically refugee community development, remains ethical and true to the community's needs. How do we avoid harming the communities we aim to serve? Dr. Ifrah Magan, an SSA graduate, currently serves as a Faculty Fellow/Associate Professor at NYU. With over a decade of experience working in refugee and immigrant communities, Dr. Magan's primary research focuses on the intersections of race, gender, religion, and class in refugee resettlement and integration. Her other research interests include access to health and mental health services among Muslim refugees, national and international immigration policies, community-centered research models, international social work, and indigenous methodologies.
Nick Estes: "Our History is the Future"
Join us for a book talk by Nick Estes on his new work, "Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance." His talk will be followed by a round-table with Chicago-based organizers from NoDAPL and BLM, responding to the book. Estes is Kul Wicasa and a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He is an Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico. For 2017-2018, Estes was the American Democracy Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. His research engages colonialism and global Indigenous histories, with a focus on decolonization, environmental justice, anti-capitalism, and the Oceti Sakowin. In 2015, his reporting on bordertown violence and racism for Indian Country Today won a Third Place Prize for Excellence in Beat Reporting from the Native American Journalism Association. Estes’ writing is also featured in Jacobin, Indian Country Today, The Funambulist Magazine, High Country News, and La Jicarita. This event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Comparative Literature, History, the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, and the Pozen Center for Human Rights
Seeds of Solidarity: A Garden Reimagined
Please join UChicago’s Art Against the Law class for a celebration of the Seeds of Solidarity Garden. The Art Against the Law class has been working to reimagine and revitalize a small garden behind OMSA—a space for contemplation and reflection, where words from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated writers and poets are showcased. This event celebrates a space on campus that facilitates thought and dialogue about mass incarceration and the criminal justice system. Join us for an evening of food, readings, solidarity activities, and discussions with your peers and other Chicago-based artists and activists!
Upcoming
Fall 2019 Kirschner Lecture with Albert Woodfox
More Info