UTC Celebrates Human Rights Week: March 24-28

In this time of impending war, it seems appropriate to try to raise our awareness and understanding of human suffering and to think seriously about how it can be alleviated. To this end, the Political Science Club has organized UTC's first ever Human Rights Week. Each day this week, the campus community will have the opportunity to attend an event focused on an issue of great importance to human rights. This series of events has been made possible by the generous financial support of the UTC College of Arts and Sciences, Student Government Association President Kino Becton, SGA, the Speakers and Events Committee, and the UTC Department of Political Science.

Schedule of Events

Monday, March 24th, Grote 129 7:00 pm
"Native American Rights are Human Rights Too"

Suzan Shown Harjo, President of the Morning Star Institute, a national Indian rights organization. Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is a poet, writer, lecturer, curator and policy advocate who has helped native peoples recover more than one million acres of land. She has developed federal Indian law since 1975, including key national policies to protect Native American cultures and arts. She is author of "Fighting Name Calling: Challenging 'Redskins' in Court," in Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy (University of Nebraska Press 2001).

Tuesday, March 25th Grote 129 7:00 pm
Affirmative Action Forum: "How Does Affirmative Action Affect You"

Topics of discussion will include:
1. The Michigan Case
2. The Bush Administration's plan for "Affirmative Access"
3. Affirmative Action at UTC
4. Who is affected by Affirmative Action
5. The importance of diversity

Wednesday, March 26th Fletcher 114 12 Noon
Capital Punishment Forum

Speakers include:
Buzz Sienknecht, local ACLU Representative
David Bales, former Hamilton County Gop Chairman
Randy Tatel, Executive Director TN Coalition Against State Killing
Jeff Rush, UTC Professor of Criminal Justice
Moderator: David Carrithers, Chair, Department of Political Science

Thursday, March 27th Grote 129 7:00 pm
"Labor Rights as Human Rights: Free Trade, the WTO and Sweated Labor"
Dr. Robert Ross, Professor of Sociology, Clark University

Since the 1980s, Ross has worked on the political economy of urban development and the analysis of global capitalism. He was active in social movements in the 1960s and he still does research in this area. In 1995, he began research on the resurgence of sweatshops and has given over 60 public lectures on the issue. His most recent book, published by the University of Michigan Press, is entitled Hearts Starve.

Friday, March 28th, Fletcher 114 7:00 pm
"Women's Rights Human Rights"
Dr. Brooke Ackerly, Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University

Ackerly's teaching and research interests include democratic theory, cross-cultural human rights theory, feminist theory, and social criticism. She integrates into her theoretical work empirical research on democratization, human rights, credit programs, and women's activism. Her publications include Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism (Cambridge University Press 2000) and "Women's Human Rights Activists as Cross-Cultural Theorists" in the International Journal of Feminist Politics (2001).