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International Institute Symposium. Translating Human Rights: Bodies of Evidence

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How does the interdisciplinary study of human rights translate bodies as and into evidence? How are recent technological advances (in forensics, new media, and methods of quantification) transforming what counts as evidence? Going beyond a view of translation framed in terms of accuracy or equivalence, this symposium explores the relationship of bodies, evidence, and translation within the context of critical debates in human rights studies.

This symposium is part of the LSA Theme Semester on Translation, and is being co-organized by the International Institute and the Department of Comparative Literature.

Schedule

Introduction - Opening Remarks

Ken Kollman, Director, International Institute
Christi Merrill, U-M
Pam Ballinger, U-M

Panel 1 - Thomas Keenan
Photography, Rights, and the Evidence of Being Human

Thomas Keenan, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature; Director, Human Rights Project, Bard College, NYC
U-M Respondents: Susan Waltz and Ruby Tapia

Panel 2 - Patrick Ball
Making the Case: The Production and Consumption of Quantitative Data on Human Rights Abuses

Speaker: Patrick Ball, Chief Scientist and Vice President, Human Rights Program, BenetechU-M Respondents: Andrew Herscher and Kiyoteru Tsutsui

Panel 3 - David Turnley

Speaker: David Turnley, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographer and Associate Professor, Photography, Residential College and School of Art and Design, University of Michigan
Respondent: Thomas Keenan

Panel 4 - Vincanne Adams
TIBET ON FIRE: Self-Immolation and Human Rights Politics of Enumeration and Affect

Vincanne Adams, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco

Panel 5 - Inderpal Grewal
Outsourcing Patriarchy: Honor Killings as 'Crime of Culture' or Violation of Women's Human Rights

Speaker: Inderpal Grewal, Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Yale University
U-M Respondents: Nancy Rose Hunt and Sidonie Smith

Symposium Organizers

Pamela Ballinger, Department of History, U-M
Ken Kollman, International Institute and Department of Political Science, U-M
Christi Merrill, Department of Comparative Literature, U-M
Yopie Prins, Department of Comparative Literature, U-M