Rights Talk

This episode features Professor Zachariah Mampilly, Marxe Endowed Chair of International Affairs at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at CUNY’s Baruch College and member of the doctoral faculty of The CUNY Graduate Center's Department of Political Science. Professor Mampilly discusses the ongoing wave of largely youth-led protest movements on the African continent. He gives...

This episode features Columbia University’s Professor Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. The discussion centers on his new book: Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times (Princeton University Press, 2022). Professor Snyder examines the historical deve...

This episode focuses on challenges facing K-12 education, particularly at the intersection of racism and sexism in the US education system today.  Dr. Watson—Associate Professor of Education Leadership, Provost Fellow, and inaugural Director of the Office for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging—discusses Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s idea of the “beloved community” and a framework for educa...

This episode grapples with the limitations of the legal definition of genocide in international law and its implications for international responses to mass civilian destruction. Prof. Dirk Moses—Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of Political Science at The City College of New York—historically situates the development of the concept of genocide, examines the challenges posed by the narrow defini...

This episode engages the theme of reproductive rights in the United States and beyond. Prof. Cynthia Soohoo—Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at the CUNY School of Law—illuminates the history of reproductive oppression in the United States. She examines the rights gains made with past US Supreme Court decisions—particularly Roe v Wade (1973) and subsequ...

This episode engages with a range of themes at the intersection of human rights and medicine with Christian De Vos, Director of Research and Investigations, and Payal Shah, Director of the Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). They discuss PHR’s work gathering evidence of grave human rights abuses to advance justice processes, supporting clinicians to...

This episode explores the motivations for and the consequences of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It features Dr. Rajan Menon, CCNY’s Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair Emeritus in Political Science; Director of the Grand Strategy Program at Defense Priorities; Senior Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University; and Global Ethics...

This episode features Matthew Reilly, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at The City College of New York, and CCNY students Catie Hernandez and Eloisa Martinez Jimenez. Prof. Reilly and his students discuss the Hostile Terrain 94 initiative, a participatory global art installation that is part of the Undocumented Migration Project. The installation, located in the North Academic Center of CCNY (1...

This episode focuses on the first days of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. Louis Charbonneau, UN Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), offers insight into HRW's monitoring of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, the crackdown on antiwar protestors in Russia, the UN's multifaceted response to the conflict, and the humanitarian crisis unfolding w...

This episode is devoted to examining the crime of torture. It features the President and CEO of the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), Dr. Simon Adams. It delves into the erosion of international human rights and humanitarian law on a global scale as well as the work of CVT, particularly on the US Southern Border and with survivors of torture in the Middle East. Dr. Adams discusses impunity, the...

This episode examines the adverse human costs of neoliberal globalization, particularly the impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the lives of Mexicans and the food system. Drawing on her recently published work Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico , Dr. Alyshia Gálvez—Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College, and Profess...

This episode focuses on the US care infrastructure and gender inequality. Dr. Kathlene McDonald—Associate Professor of Literature and Writing at CCNY's Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education (CWE)—considers the gaps in the US care system in comparative perspective, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. She examines President Biden’s Build Back Bette...

This episode focuses on the mental health challenges faced by some of the most vulnerable populations: survivors of war, sexual violence, and torture as well as forced migrants, particularly children and women. Dr. Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith, licensed psychologist and Professor of Psychology at CCNY and the CUNY Graduate Center, discusses her research, advocacy, and clinical work with survivors of...

This episode is devoted to examining the right to health and health care systems in comparative perspective with Dr. Lorraine Frisina Doetter, Political Scientist and Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Bremen, Senior Consultant at the World Health Organization, and editor of the Global Dynamics in Social Policy book series published by Palgrave Macmillan.  It engages the challen...

This episode engages the multifaceted human rights challenges faced by Haitians in the homeland and in the United States and beyond. It features Dr. Cécile Accilien, a professor and scholar of Haitian Studies and Board Member of the Haitian Studies Association, based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has published a number of books, articles, and chapters; her most recent publication is a co-edited volume...

This episode features Lisa Davis, Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice (HRGJ) Clinic at the CUNY School of Law.  Prof. Davis explains the particular vulnerabilities that women and LGBTIQ persons face in contexts of armed conflict, developments in international law concerning gender-based violence, and the crime of gender persecution. Also discussed is t...

This episode focuses on the grave human rights challenges confronted by indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, activism, and film, and more specifically the Americas Film Festival of New York (TAFFNY). It features Carlos Aguasaco, Associate Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies and Spanish and in coming department chair, at City College’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Cind...

This episode featuring Nicholas R. Micinski, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Maine,  focuses on the upsurge of forcibly displaced persons and migrants,  gaps in rights protections, and recent global governance initiatives. The discussion centers on Dr. Micinski's recent publication UN Global Compacts: Governing Migrants and Refugees (Rou...

This episode is devoted to discussing the evolution of international criminal justice since 1945 with former founding Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno Ocampo. The conversation centers on the ICC’s development and limitations. In addition, he discusses the Global War on Terror, particularly the US policy of killing of those deemed “enemy combatants” in other so...

This episode features Dr. Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, Assistant Medical Professor at the CUNY School of Medicine and faculty advisor for CCNY's White Coats for Black Lives chapter. Dr. Salas-Ramirez discusses her research on addiction and her efforts to counter systemic racism in education and health care. She elaborates on the antiracist community work that she undertakes with her CCNY medical st...

April 2021 is a month with three genocide commemorations - Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah); the International Day of Reflection on the 1994  Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda; and Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. This episode focuses on the scholarship of historian Dr. Debórah Dwork, Director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Human...

This episode features Human Rights Watch's UN Director Louis Charbonneau. It focuses on the politics of human rights at the United Nations. It considers the domestic human rights records of both China and the United States, as well as the behavior of these powers at the United Nations. 

This episode features Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan, Founder and Director of the Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative, Visiting Research Professor at CCNY's Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, and Visiting Professor at Columbia University. Dr. Gowrinathan is also the creator of Guernica magazine's The Female Fighter Series and publisher of Adi magazine. The discussion centers...

This episode features Bruce Cronin, CCNY Professor of Political Science and Director of the Human Rights Minor. The discussion centers on Prof. Cronin's latest book publication, Bugsplat: The Politics of Collateral Damage in Western Armed Conflicts . It also includes such themes as humanitarian intervention, international security and cooperation, China, authoritarianism, and technology.