We are delighted to announce that Professor Sueann Caulfield will serve as the new director for the Donia Human Rights Center (DHRC) for a three year term, effective July 1, 2026.
Sueann Caulfield is Professor of History and Professor, Residential College at the University of Michigan. She holds an MA in Latin American Studies and PhD in History from New York University. At the International Institute, Professor Caulfield previously served as Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She is a long-time member of the Donia Center Steering Committee and served as Associate Director from 2024-2026. She also serves as Co-Director of the Global Feminisms Project, an oral history archive housed at the U-M Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, and she coordinates a collaborative initiative on Southern Cone Feminisms with the Oral and Visual History Laboratory (LABHOI) at the Federal Fluminense University in Brazil and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile. Her teaching and research focus on the history of feminisms, gender, sexuality, family law, and human rights in the Americas, with emphasis on nineteenth and twentieth-century Brazil. Her publications include In Defense of Honor: Morality, Modernity, and Nation in Early Twentieth-Century Brazil, the co-edited volume Honor, Status, and Law in Modern Latin American History, and numerous articles on family law, race, sexuality, and historiography in modern Brazil and Latin America. Her current research traces the history of family and law in Brazil from the perspective of paternity, legitimacy, and the rights of non-marital children from the early nineteenth century to the present.
Please join us in welcoming Sueann and thanking her for her willingness to serve in this important role!
