By: Kamrin Baker & Koichi Iwasaki
The United Nations defines human rights as “rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.”
Those very rights were brought to life in lectures, exhibitions and workshops across campus during the second annual Human Rights Week series, beginning on Sept. 18 and running through Oct. 3.
Laura Alexander, Ph.D, is an assistant professor of religious studies and the Goldstein Family Chair in Human Rights at UNO. She is also the main coordinator for this in-depth educational experience.
“Not all education takes place in the classroom,” Alexander said. “Having these types of events that are available for everyone means that students who are in related classes have something a little different, and students who may not be in related classes get a taste of something different. They get to know a bit more about human rights concerns, global concerns, community engagement, everything.”
The events planned for the ongoing series were intended to highlight the work of scholars and students in the community and engage people in a hands-on way with human rights issues.
Topics of lectures, panels, and workshops included issues of religious human rights in the United States, Latinx art and cultural rights, understanding the refugee experience and memorializing the legacy of the Holocaust through the visual arts. A full schedule of events can be viewed here.
“It’s really all about the creativity of the human spirit,” Alexander said. “Art is a powerful way of dealing with human rights concerns that can be accessible to many people. There is no one interpretation, which means anyone can look at something and understand it differently but everyone can be touched in a meaningful way.”
Following the lead of the artistic symposium of Samuel Bak’s exhibit ‘Witness,’ depicting his traumatic experiences with the Holocaust, Marjorie Agosín, Ph.D, from Wellesley College, presented an art-centered lecture called “Weaving Hope: Gender, Art, and Resistance in Latin America” during the series of events.
Her lecture touched on the underlying feminist theory of Latin American art by women like Celia Cruz and Gabriela Mistral.
“I was very young when I started this work,” Agosín said. “I wanted to carry their story to the world. You have to be ambitious if you’re interested in doing good.”
Ambition is a trait both Alexander and Agosín share. Alexander emphasized that her role as the Goldstein Family Community Chair allows her to use her skills in academia to power an event that is accessible to the whole community.
“In the end, it’s a way for people not just to be talked at, but to really get an experience and let them understand a little bit better,” Alexander said. “The human rights issues we do at UNO, they’re not activism in the sense that we’re not pushing for one solution to separate issues, but we’re promoting education so people have the tools to think.”
