Webinar: Human Rights Education’s Curriculum Problem

EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm EST
Where: Zoom
Cost: FREE

Presenter: Walter C. Parker, University of Washington, Seattle, USA 

Description: Does human rights education have a social justice mission? And if so, how much does knowledge matter in realising justice through education? In this session, Walter Parker articulates what he identifies as human rights education’s curriculum problem in schools and suggests strategies to solve it.  Employing a theoretical perspective from the critical sociology of education, he suggests the main problem is HRE’s lack of an episteme—a disciplinary structure created in specialist communities—and, related to this, the flight of scholars from the field of curriculum practice, redefining it away from subject matter. Parker asserts that the HRE curriculum remains scattered, ill-defined, and too variable to be robust. HRE advocacy is important but insufficient. He argues that a more robust HRE in schools will require a curriculum that teachers can adapt to local needs, constraints, and students. Knowledge matters. In this session he identifies a key challenge for researchers and policymakers: without knowledge work of this sort, it is difficult to claim that HRE has a social justice mission. Walter Parker’s full paper can be read here

This event is part of a the 2021 Research Webinar Seminar Series that runs from January-June 2021. Details of upcoming seminars can be found here.

Webinar – Pedagogy & Projects: Teaching about and for Children’s Rights

EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Friday, March 5, 2021
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm EST
Where: Zoom
Cost: FREE

Description:
Dr. Yvonne Vissing will share her experiences of networking and research with scholars running child rights programs in the UK, Ireland, and Cyprus. The US is now the only UN state party not to have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. What can we learn from our global child rights colleagues to integrate into our teaching about and for children’s rights in the United States? 

Yvonne Vissing PhD is a sociologist and Professor of Healthcare Studies and Founding Director of the Center for Childhood & Youth Studies at Salem State University.  Author of over a dozen books and hundreds of publications and presentations, she is an international expert in children’s human rights.  She is the US child rights policy chair for Hope for Children’s UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Policy Center, an international think-tank of child rights scholars located in Cyprus.  A former National Institute of Mental Health Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, she is on a variety of boards and committees, such as the Human Rights Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, American Sociological Association and HREUSA.  

This event, is part of a spring webinar series sponsored by the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE),

Teach the Black Freedom Struggle

EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Mondays January – May, 2021
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EST  
Where: Live Stream
Cost: FREE

Description:
This series entitled, “Teach the Black Freedom Struggle” is hosted by the Zinn Education project and features leading historians from across the country. 

The classes are held at least once a month on Mondays at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET for 75 minutes. In each session, the historian is interviewed by a teacher and breakout rooms allow participants (in small groups) to meet each other, discuss the content, and share teaching ideas.

Upcoming Sessions:

  • March 8, 2021: A Black Women’s History of the United States. 
  • March 22, 2021: The Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike. 
  • April 26, 2021: The Carceral State
  • May 10, 2021: How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Apply Now! HRE Summer Fellowship

HRE USA is now accepting applications for their Edmonds Summer Fellowship Program.

The Edmonds Summer Fellowship supports hands-on leadership experience in human rights education to honor the legacy of HRE leader Kirby Edmonds and further his work to engage young people in building human rights-friendly schools and communities.

Each fellow receives a $1500 stipend.

Fellows must be 18 years or older and be willing to commit to 100 hours between June 1-August 15.

Preference will be given to applications received by March 1, 2021

>> Learn more and apply

Free ACLU Webinar for Youth on Civil Liberties

EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Saturday, February 27, 2021
Time: 11:00 am-12:00 pm CST
Where: Zoom
Cost: FREE

Description: 
This Saturday, February 27, Nicole Rainey of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri will ZOOM with Civitas students to talk about Civil Liberties Issues. The federal government’s view of inalienable rights has changed considerably as we have moved from the Trump Administration to the era of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The ACLU was established in the 19-teens to protect liberties that were threatened by the government overstepping its reach. Many of the causes that it supports are not popular (e.g. advocating for Nazi protestors to have the right to march through a Jewish neighborhood), but they consistently work to protect individual liberties. This is true regarding student rights in school. Nicole will be joined by at least one other attorney from the ACLU-MO.

Stop Line 3 – For Water. For Treaties. For Climate

Line 3 is a tar sands oil pipeline currently under construction in Canada and Minnesota — violating treaty rights, risking over 200 bodies of water with the threat of an oil spill, and reversing our progress on climate change with a carbon equivalent of 50 coal-fired power plants. 

The pipeline’s impacts on the economy, natural resources, and public health, and its violations of indigenous rights are unacceptable.

First Nations, tribal governments, landowners, environmental groups, and communities across the Great Lakes have been fighting for 5 years now to stop this new corridor and #StopLine3 . See the links below to learn more about how you can get involved to protect the water and our future generations

>> Learn more about Line 3
>> Watch film and download study guide
>> Take action

Planet Classroom

Planet Classroom is a global network for youth by youth that brings together musicians, dancers, video game creators, filmmakers, innovators, and emerging technologists to entertain, educate and engage. The creators and curators focus on celebrating global oneness. They do this by showcasing powerful video storytelling, cultural workshops, and social impact innovations combined with interactive discussion on global challenges featuring voices from around the world. 

All programming on the Planet Classroom Network is made available for FREE.

>> Learn more
>> View Youtube channel

Dawnland Online Film Screening + Live Q&A

EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Thursday, February 25, 2021
Time: 6 pm – 8:30 pm CST
Where: Online
Cost: FREE

Description: 
This is a special opportunity to see the 86-minute directors’ cut of Dawnland followed by a live Q and A. For decades, child welfare authorities have been removing Native American children from their homes to save them from being Indian. In Maine, the first official “truth and reconciliation commission” in the United States begins a historic investigation. National News & Documentary Emmy® award-winning film Dawnland goes behind-the-scenes as this historic body grapples with difficult truths, redefines reconciliation, and charts a new course for state and tribal relations.

Join chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission David Faunkle, educator and linguist Roger Paul (Passamaquoddy), filmmaker and Upstander Project director Adam Mazo, and Upstander Project learning director Mishy Lesser for a live Q&A moderated by Dodd Human Rights Impact director Glenn Mitoma after the film. The discussion will center on the burgeoning conversations and moves to create truth and healing commissions in the land now known as the United States. 

Renewing A Human Rights Agenda Series

Mark your calendars! UICHR announces its spring webinar series: Renewing a Human Rights Agenda. All sessions are held on Wednesdays from 12:00 – 1:00 pm CST

Upcoming Webinars:

  • February 24, 12:00 PM: Renewing a Human Rights Agenda: U.S. Foreign Policy
  • March 10, 12:00 PM: Renewing a Human Rights Agenda: Defending Democracy in the U.S.
  • March 24, 12:00 PM: Renewing a Human Rights Agenda: The Criminal Legal System
  • April 7, 12:00 PM: Renewing a Human Rights Agenda: The Climate Crisis
  • April 28, 12:00 PM: Renewing a Human Rights Agenda: Native American Rights

A few days after each event, the webinar recording will be posted to the UICHR Youtube channel

NEH Summer Institute – Grassroots History of Civil Rights Movement

Teaching for Change is partnering with a team of scholars, SNCC veterans, and educators from Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies and the SNCC Legacy Project on an NEH Teacher Institute, The Civil Rights Movement: Grassroots Perspectives (1940 – 1980), in the summer of 2021.

Participants (classroom teachers and school librarians in grades 7-12) will learn the bottom-up history of the Civil Rights Movement and receive resources and strategies to bring to their students. The institute will be held online and teachers receive a stipend of $2,850.

Deadline by March 1, 2021