Is Racial Equity Possible? Race and Racism in 2019

Wednesday, March 13, 2019
9:00 to 5:00

Click on the flyer for more information (PDF)

Conference Program

• 9:00am  Registration and Coffee
• 9:15am Welcome and Opening Remarks
  • Welcome: Michael Buckley (Philosophy/Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies)
• 9:25am
  • Opening Remarks (TBA)
• 9:45  11:45: Embedded Political Racism
  • Moderator: (Julie Maybee, Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy)
  • Speakers
    • Charles Mills, Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center.
    • Lewis Gordon, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Connecticut
• 11:45-12:30 Nothing About Us  theatrical performance about segregation in NYC schools
• 12:30-1:00 Lunch
• 1:00-3:00  Africana Studies and its Legacy Confronting Philosophical Racism
  • Moderator: Dominique Winters, MPA, Department of Africana Studies
  • Speakers:
    • Dr. Patricia Reid-Merritt Distinguished Professor, Social Work & Africana Studies, Richard Stockton University
    • Ms. Jordan Alvarado - Paraprofessional, New York City Teaching Fellow, Africana Studies Alumni, Class of 2018
    • Ms. Natasha Dezonie, LMSW - Founder “Wholistik Living Project”, Holistic Mental Health Consultant & Coach
    • Ms. Donna LaForey, BA - Elementary School Teacher, Entrepreneurial Ambition for African Community Development, Africana Studies, Class of 2019 
• 3:00-3:15 Coffee Break
• 3:15-5:00 Health Equity: Fixing Racial Injustice in the Healthcare System
  • Moderator: Gwendolyn Lancaster, Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing
  • Speakers
    • Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH: Associate Commissioner and Director of NYC’s Center for Health Equity
    • Ivelyse Andino: Founder/CEO Radical Health

Click here for a list of past events

Is Racial Equity Possible: 9th Annual Conference of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Lehman College, March 13, 2019.

Artist as Witness: Cultural Production, Conflict, and Human Rights in Syria, 8th Annual Conference of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Lehman College, March 1, 2018.

International Conference on Atrocity Prevention in the Americas: Gender Violence, Citizen Security and the Role of the Police, Lehman College, November 29, 2018.

Journalism in the Age of Disaster, Puerto Rico: La Tormenta, The Truth and Making Sense, One Year After Hurricane Maria, with Dept of Journalism Lehman College, October 11, 2018.

Human Rights in the Americas: Freedom of Expression and Citizenship in 2017, 7th Annual Conference of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Lehman College, May 9, 2017.

In the Eye of the Hurricane: Understanding Puerto Rico's Crisis, Lehman College, December 6, 2017.

Archives, Witnessing & Testimony: Truth Battles, 6th Annual Conference of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Lehman College, April 19, 2016.

Post-Colonial Truth-Telling: 5th Annual Conference of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Lehman College, May 13, 2015.

The Deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, with the Philosophy Department, Lehman College, March 4th, 2015

Refugee Lives at Risk/Citizen Rights Denied: Frontline Stories from Greece, Uganda, Central America and the Dominican Republic, Fall Conference, Lehman College, November 4, 2015.

Gender Violence, Conflict and the State, Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies 4th Annual Spring Conference of the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Lehman College, April 2, 2014.

A Human Rights Framework for Understanding the Immigration Debate, Inaugural Conference of the Center for Human Rights at Lehman College (co-sponsored with the Latin American Studies Program at City College of New York and Baruch Law School Immigration Clinic), Lehman College, February 24, 2011.

Events

Quest for a More Perfect Union, In Celebration of Constitution Day, Lehman College, September 17, 2021

The Destruction of Memory: The War Against Culture and the Fight to Save it, Film Showing with Director/Producer Tim Slade, Lehman College, October 16, 2019.

International Human Rights Day 70th Anniversary Celebration, Lehman College, Deceember 11, 2018.

Workshop on Atrocity Prevention in the Americas: Gender Violence, Citizen Security and the Role of the Police, Lehman College, November 30, 2018.

Responding to Tragedy: Rabbinical Students Talk about Accompanying Families in Pittsburgh after the Recent Anti-Semitic Attacks, Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies Lehman College, November 15, 2018.

A Very Special Event with Ricardo Falla: Accompaniment and Solidarity in War, Lehman College, October 23, 2018.

Atrocity Prevention from Africa to the Americas, Speaker: Dr. Tibi Galis, Lehman College, October 25, 2017.

Faculty Writers Workshop on Urgent Issues, Lehman College, monthly seminar 2015-2016.

Can There be Peace with Justice After Genocide?, Lehman College, November 28, 2012.

Sexual Violence and the Transmission of Trauma in South Sudan. Central America and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lehman College, October 9, 2012.

Toward Regional Strategies to Stop Violence against Women in Central America, Promote Women's Rights & Enhance Women's Democratic Participation, with the Asociacion Colectivo de Investigaciones Sociales y Laborales (COISOLA), the Center for Law and Global Affairs (CLGA) at the Sandra Day O Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Florida Gulf Coast University Forensics Program, the International Women's Human Rights Clinic at CUNY Law School and, MADRE, Lehman College, April 7-8, 2011.

Speaker Seriess

Impunity in Post-Genocide Guatemala, Jose Carlos Marroquin (Guatemala/US) & The Never Again Coalition  The Need for a Universal Alliance to Combat Genocide, Uriel Levy (Israel), Lehman College, October 15, 2013.

Frontline Reporting on Human Rights Abuses, Corruption & Drug Violence in Central America, Carlos Dada (El Salvador), Lehman College, October 28, 2013.

The Guatemalan Genocide Trials, Sofia Duyos (Spain), Lehman College, November 2, 2013.

Sicilian Mafia and Colombian Paramilitaries: Fieldwork of a War Machine Aldo Civico (Italy/US), Lehman College, December 2, 2013.

List of Past Events (PDF)

Annual Spring Conference: Post-Colonial Truth Telling

• Film Series Documented: A Film by an Undocumented American- February 25, 11:00am-1:00pm
  The Mexican Suitcase- March 12, 12:30-2:30pm
  Virunga- May 6, 11:00am-1:00pm

Co-sponsored by the Leonard Lief Library

• Insurgent Ethnography: Crafting Stories that Stick

• Symposium - The Deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosphy and the Department of Anthropology
• Challenging Impunity in Domestic Courts: Human Rights Prosecution in Latin America- Wednesday, March 3, 7pm
• Kentucky Cantata talkback by Dr. Sanford on January 31 at Here Arts Center. Dr. Sanford will give a talkback immediately following the show, which begins at 7pm.

Journalism in the Age of Disaster, Puerto Rico: La Tormenta, The Truth and Making Sense, One Year After Hurricane Maria.

Thursday October 11, 2018

12:45 to 2:30
Music Building, Recital Hall, Room 306.
Panel Discussion

This panel discussion will assess how news media performed and failed to perform its roles as watchdog, truth-teller and sense-maker during Hurricane Maria and in the year since. Panelists will consider the role journalism can or could play in this and other disasters - both environmental and man-made.

Confirmed speakers: David Gonzalez, New York Times; Ed Morales, author LatinX: The New Force in American Politics and Culture; Alana Casanova-Burgess, producer WNYC On the Media;

Ana Teresa Toro, columnist El Nueva Dia; CUNY Service Corps members who responded to storm; Welcome by Lehman College President José Luis Cruz.

• RSVP: rsvpjournalism@lehman.cuny.edu

Co-sponsored by Journalism and Media Studies; Latin American, Latino and Puerto Rican Studies; Arts & Humanities; the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies; and, the Leonard Leif Library.

Accompaniment and solidarity in context of war: Experiences from Ixcan, Guatemala

Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018

11:00-12:30
Atrium, Leonard Lief Library, Lehman College
A Very Special Event with Ricardo Falla Sanchez

Ricardo Falla Sanchez is a Guatemalan Jesuit anthropologist who completed his PhD at the University of Texas in Austin after having studied theology in Innsbruck Austria with Karl Rahner, among others. He has dedicated his life to documenting the lives and cultures of the Quich  [K'iche'] Maya in Guatemala and other indigenous peoples in Central America. His writings have document multiple Mayan communities including their revitalization through, among other initiatives, their engagement with Catholic Action, attempts to destroy their communities through the brutal massacres of the 1980s, and their struggles for justice and human rights .He is perhaps most widely know n for his 1992 publication Masacres de la Selva  a volume that appeared in English, Massacres of the Jungle, in 1994. He has recently published three books on Maya youth, two focused on those from the Ixcn area of Guatemala: Alicia: Explorando la identidad de una joven maya [Exploring identity: The story of a Maya youth] (2005) and Juventud de una comunidad maya: Ixc n, Guatemala [Youth from a Maya Community, Ixcn, Guatemala] (2006) and a third volume, Migracian transnacional retornada: Juventud indagena de Zacualpa, Guatemala [Transnational migration and return: Indigenous youth of Zacualpa, Guatemala] (2007) which focuses on youth who have immigrated to the United States and voluntarily returned to Guatemala. He is currently publishing the fifth volume of what will be seven volumes including much of his heretofore unpublished work, Al atardecer de la vida [At the sunset of life].

• Classes are welcome. RSVP: human.rights@lehman.cuny.edu

This special event is co-sponsored by the Lehman College Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies, the Leonard Lief Library, the Graduate Center Mesoamerican Studies Student Group, The GC Doctoral Students Council and the Graduate Center.

International Conference

Atrocity Prevention in the Americas: Gender Violence, Citizen Security and the Role of the Police

Thursday, November 29

9:30 am to 3:30 pm
East Dining Hall, Music Building, Lehman College

The Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies (CFHRPS) at Lehman College and the Auschwitz Institute are co-hosting an international conference on gender violence, citizen security and the role of the police in preventing atrocities in the Americas. The conference will cover topics ranging from efforts to reign in police violence in the US, to international efforts to combat organized crime and gender violence in Central America, to the transitional role of police in Colombia following the recent peace accords between the Colombian government and the FARC guerillas, from efforts to find the missing in Mexico to new LGBQ  sensitive police programs in Brazil, among others.

• Classes are welcome. RSVP: Human.rights@lehman.cuny.edu

Confirmed Speakers: Marlon Weichert (Brazil); Maria Marvis Jiron (Nicaragua); General Pamela Olivares (Chile); Coronel Luis Ernesto Garcia Hernandez (Colombia); Ximena Antillon (Mexico). US Speakers: Dr. Jim Waller; Dr. Max Pensky; Tatiana Devia; Dr, Kimberly Theidon; Dr. Jon Carter; Ana Maria Mendez and others TBA.

International Human Rights Day 70th Anniversary Celebration

Students, Staff and Faculty are invited to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was drafted at Lehman College! More details to follow 

Tuesday, December 11

9:30 am
Location Faculty Dining Room, Music Building

• Classes are welcome. RSVP: Human.rights@lehman.cuny.edu

*All events take place at Lehman College unless otherwise noted.

Events hosted at Lehman are free and open to the public, and refreshments are served.

• 7th Annual Human Rights Conference: Freedom of Expression & Citizenship in 2017
• Refugee Lives at Risk/Citizen Rights Denied: A Panel and Discussion Sponsored by the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies Wednesday, November 4, 2015 - 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m East Dining Hall, Lehman College

7th Annual Human Rights Conference

7th Annual Human Rights Conference: Freedom of Expression & Citizenship in 2017. To download the flyer, visit 7th Annual Human Rights Conference.

The Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in March, 2012 to celebrate the opening of its new office. Lehman College President Ricardo Fernandez, Center Executive Director Victoria Sanford, faculty members and students attended the reception.  Please visit us at our current address:

Lehman College
Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies
Carman Hall, Room 247

Intersectionality and Women's Leadership: Garifuna Women's Responses to Challenges on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua

6th Annual Human Rights Conference: Archives, Witnessing & Testimony: TRUTH BATTLES

Refugee Lives at Risk/Citizen Rights Denied: A Panel and Discussion Sponsored by the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies

2015

• Annual Spring Conference: Post-Colonial Truth Telling
• May 13, 10am-2pm
  • East Dining Hall, Music Building
  • Co-sponsored by: the Leonard Lief
  • Library, Lehman College
  • The Division of Humanities and Arts, CCNY
  • The Center for Worker Education, CCNY
  • The Department of Anthropology, Lehman College

Film Series

• All films will be screened in Leonard Lief Library's Fine Arts Classroom 226A. Documented: A Film by an Undocumented American- February 25, 11:00am-1:00pm
• The Mexican Suitcase- March 12, 12:30-2:30pm
• Virunga- May 6, 11:00am-1:00pm

Co-sponsored by the Leonard Lief Library

Insurgent Ethnography: Crafting Stories that Stick

• Monday, May 4, 11am-12:15 pm Carman Hall 229

Symposium

• The Deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown- March 4, 2:30pm-5:00pm, East Dining Hall Music Building
• Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosphy and the Department of Anthropology

Challenging Impunity in Domestic Courts: Human Rights Prosecution in Latin America- Wednesday, March 3, 7pm

At Washington College, Maryland.

Kentucky Cantata talkback by Dr. Sanford on January 31 at Here Arts Center. Dr. Sanford will give a talkback immediately following the show, which begins at 7pm.

2014

• Ayotzinapa: A Public Discussion on Violence in Mexico Monday November 24, 5:00 pm (Kent Hall, Columbia University)
• Femicide, Democracy and the Rule of Law in Guatemala: Recent Advances and Enduring Struggles Tuesday November 25, 11:00am
• Human Rights Law and Documentary Filmmaking Thursday, October 23 6:30 - 8:00pm (Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education of the City College of New York)
• Know Your Rights Wednesday, October 22 12:00pm- 2pm
• The Comparative Politics of Accountability, Transitional Justice & Civil Conflict: On the deployment of Human Rights & International Humanitarian Law Thursday, September 18, 2014 6:00p.m.-7:30p.m. (International Policy Center, Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan)
• Gender Violence, Conflict and the State Wednesday April 2, 2014 10:00am-2:00pm
• Women and Genocide Monday, March 17th, 9:00am-2:30pm (Queens College)

2013

Fall 2013 Speakers Series

• Sicilian Mafia and Colombian Paramilitaries: Fieldwork of a War Machine: Monday, December 2- Library Atrium, 11:00am-2:00pm
• The Guatemalan Genocide Trials: Monday, November 4- Library Atrium, 11:00am-2:00pm
• Frontline Reporting on Human Rights Abuses, Corruption and Drug Violence in Central America: Monday, October 28- Library Atrium, 11:00am-2:00pm
• Justice and Impunity in the Aftermath of Genocide: Tuesday, October 15- Library Atrium, 11:00am-1:30pm

Human Rights Events at Lehman

• Sex and International Tribunals: The Erasure of Gender from the War Narrative
• A Reading and Discussion by Chiseche Salome Mibenge: Tuesday, November 12- Treehouse Conference Room 317, 4:00-5:00pm
• Our Youth and Our Families: Undocumented Youth Activism and Immigrant Rights Politics: Friday, October 11

Spring 2013 Human Rights Film Series

• Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo & the Search for Identity

Wednesday April 10, 11:00am-2:00pm

This film tells the story of Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, an Argentinian human rights organization of grandmothers committed to finding their lost grandchildren, who they believe were stolen by their country’s military government some 30 years ago.*Winner of the International Indie Award of Excellence. Film screening to be followed by Skype Discussion with filmmaker C.A.Tuggle

• The Echo of Pain of the Many

Wednesday: April 24, 11:00am-2:00pm

A documentary that follows the profound story of Ana Lucia Cuevas' search for her brother Carlos Cuevas, who was disappeared by Guatemalan security forces in 1984. Film screening to be followed by Skype Discussion with filmmaker Ana Lucia Cuevas

• Worse than War– The Film with Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

Thursday, May 9: 11:00am-2:00pm

"A Fiery Scholar on the Trail of Genocide and Its Causes… Reaching beyond glib explanations of why so many died" — New York Times. Worse than War is first major documentary to explore the phenomenon of genocide and how we can stop it. Writer and filmmaker Daniel Jonah Goldhagen joins us to discuss the film.

Film Series Co-Sponsors: Herbert H. Lehman Center for Student Leadership Development, Leonard Lief Library, Anthropology, and Latin American, Latino, and Puerto Rican Studies. All film screenings at the Leonard Lief Library, Fine Arts Room 226 (2nd floor), Lehman College. Free and Open to the Public.

2012

Making Public, Forming Publics: Liberal Intellectuals Debate the Armenian Genocide in Contemporary Turkey:

Monday, December 10, 2012, 6.30-8 pm

(The Graduate Center)

 

Special Panel Discussion on Guatemala: Can there be Peace with Justice after Genocide?

The Guatemalan Army and National Police killed eight unarmed Maya peasants when they opened fire on a peaceful protest organized by 48 Maya K’iche’ communities in Totonicapan on October 4, 2012.  More than 35 protesters were wounded and the violent attack on the right to peaceful assembly sent a wave of fear through Guatemala which has yet to come to terms with the 200,000 killed during the genocide in the early 1980s.  Can there be peace after genocide?  Is it possible to bring perpetrators to justice?  This inter-disciplinary panel will explore political participation and rule of law in Guatemala’s fledgling democracy.     

• Dr. Timothy Smith, Princeton Latin American Studies. Truth-Voting against the Past: Electoral Participation and Political Subjectivity in (Post)War Guatemala
• Alexander Aisenstadt, Yale Law School. From Law Books to the History Books: The Role of International and National Courts in Enforcing Human Rights in Guatemala.
• Moderated by Dr. Victoria Sanford, Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies

Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 11:00am – 2:00pm

Leonard Lief Library, 2^nd Floor - Atrium

Sexual violence and the transmission of trauma in South Sudan, Central America and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Sexual violence is a weapon of war, and it is also a domain of sexual behavior that is poorly understood in the context of uniformed populations. While much attention has been given to the consequences and aftermath of sexual violence, there remains a gap in scholarship that elucidates the systematic production of sexual violence and tangible actions that can be taken. In this presentation, Dr. Mike Anastario from the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University explores the role that trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder play in the perpetration of sexual coercion in military populations, and he discusses implications for change that can occur through mechanisms of data collection, surveillance, and forensic documentation.

Tuesday, October 9, 11:00 am -1:00 pm

Leonard Lief Library, Atrium – 2^nd Floor 

Annual Open Forum for the Lehman Community

• October 2, 2012 1:00pm - 3:00pm
• Leonard Lief Library, Atrium 2^nd Floor
• Free and Open to Lehman Students, Faculty and Staff

Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies Spring 2012 Conference- Nueva Visión: Latino Politics and the Rights of Migrants in the Americas

Check out the flier for more details [PDF]

Thursday, May 10, 2012, 2:00pm - 8:00pm

Music Building, East Dining Room

Co-sponsors: Department of Political Science at Lehman College and CUNY Latino Initiative

Breaking The Cycle of Violence Addressing The Needs of Central American Immigrants In Mexico

The National Human Rights Committee of Mexico (CNDH) estimates that over 11,000 migrants were kidnapped in Mexico in a six-month period in 2010. Padre Alejandro Solalinde Guerra decided to create a shelter called “Hermanos en el Camino” which provides migrants a brief and safe rest during their journey. As a result of his work, he has faced death threats and other challenges.

Thursday, February 16, 2012, 6:00 p.m.– 8:00 p.m.
Music Building, East Dining Room

2011

GRANITO: How to Nail a Dictator

Screening and Q&A with Editor Peter Kinoy
[When the Mountains Tremble and GRANITO]

Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 11:00am – 1:00pm
Leonard Lief Library, Fine Arts Classroom 226A

Co-sponsored by: Academic Affairs, the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies and Leonard Lief Library

 

 

Join us for an international conference addressing the following themes:

• Violence Against Women and Impunity in Central America
• Crime Scene Investigation: US Forensic Investigators and High-Impact Feminicide Cases in Guatemala
• Building Rule of Law One Case at a Time by Promoting Women’s Rights
• Strategies for Strengthening Regional Cooperation
• stay for our conference reception featuring photography and poetry

The conference will offer participants new ways of understanding contemporary violence in Central America and identify ways to stop violence against women, as well as enhance women's participation in strengthening the rule of law, access to justice, and the consolidation of democracy.

Dr. Victoria Sanford, Executive Director, Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies

Conference webcast *live* at www.lehman.edu

For full conference details, click here [PDF]

Thursday, April 7, 2011
CONFERENCE: 9:30 a.m. – 5:45 p.m., East Dining Room
RECEPTION: 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., Leonard Lief Library

Conference co-sponsors: The Asociación Colectivo de Investigaciones Sociales y Laborales; the Center for Law and Global Affairs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University; the program in Criminal Forensic Studies at the College of Professional Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University; MADRE; the CUNY School of Law International Women’s Rights Clinic; Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights; the City College of New York’s MA Program in Latin American Studies; and the Lehman College Leonard Lief Library. This conference is made possible by a grant from the Open Society Institute’s International Women’s Program as well as support from the Lehman College Office of the Provost and Dean of Natural and Social Sciences. 

free and open to the public

A Human Rights Framework for Understanding the Immigration Debate

This one-day conference on immigration reform and immigrants' rights hopes to draw national attention to the plight of undocumented immigrants. The conference will offer participants new ways of understanding the immigration debate within a larger political historical context.

• Keynote Speaker: Dr. Linda Green (University of Arizona) on the landscape of immigration in Arizona and what it means for the rest of the country
• Panel:
  • Dr. Alfonso Gonzalez (Lehman College) on Latino Politics and the Struggle for Human Rights in the 21st Century
  • Dr. Liliana Yanez (CUNY Law School)
  • Dr. Miguel Perez (Lehman College) on the “Anchor Baby” debate

• Screening of Short Documentary: "Undocumented College Students and the Dream Act" — directed by Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo (CUNY Graduate Center)
• Reception and Reading: Dr. Irina Carlota Silber (CCNY M.A. Program in the Study of the Americas) reading from her new book: "Everyday Revolutionaries: Gender, Violence and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador"

Thursday, February 24, 2011, 11:00am
Music Building, East Dining Hall
Free and open to the public