UConn Human Rights Symposium

The Corporation and the Public Interest: The Environment, Diversity, and Human Rights

Environmental, social, and governance issues have brought the roles and responsibilities of the contemporary business corporation to the forefront of the public agenda and have changed the nature of legal practice. This symposium will gather a select group of leading experts to discuss issues of corporate sustainability and societal impact. It will consist of three panels on topics that lie at the intersection of corporate activity and the public interest: the environment, diversity, and human rights.

Schedule (exact times are subject to change):

RSVP HERE!

Abstract

The environmental justice movement has long centered the idea that all people regardless of race, class, or ability have the right to a safe and clean environment. Still, millions of people in the United States are exposed to industrial toxicants in invisible, slow-scale exposures that threaten health, safety, and well-being. While the physical health impacts of such exposures are well documented, less is known about the psychological implications, particularly for the low-income communities of color who disproportionately face these issues. In this talk, I will present the results of a program of community-engaged research that uncovers the psychological impacts of this “slow violence” in Tucson, Arizona’s southside community. How might water contamination seep into the psyche of exposed communities? And how do these communities build resilience to and organize against environmental injustice?

About the Speaker

Harrison Schmitt is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Skidmore College. He earned his PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Arizona. His research employs mixed-methods to understand the psychological implications of social justice issues. Current projects include investigations of how culture and social class shape the experience of financial debt, how environmental justice issues impact mental health, and how policing and incarceration are tied to neoliberal capitalism.

Sponsors

This event is co-sponsored by the Research Program on Economic & Social Rights (ESRG) at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and the UConn Department of Psychology.

About the Film

BORDERLAND | The Line Within is a documentary that explores the reality that the United States border is not just a geographic location. The border is everywhere. It lies within every undocumented immigrant family with the threat that at any moment they can be captured, incarcerated, deported; their lives destroyed. The film not only exposes the profitable business of immigration and its human cost, but weaves together the stories of immigrant heroines and heroes resisting and showing a way forward, intent on building a movement in the shadow of the border industrial complex, recognizing the human rights of all.

Following a screening of the film, we’re thrilled to be joined by filmmakers Paco de Onís and Pamela Yates for a post-show discussion moderated by El Instituto’s Anne Gebelein. Join us after for a catered reception in the Dodd Lounge.

Watch the Trailer

About the Filmmakers

Paco de Onís and Pamela Yates – Producer and Director of BORDERLAND. Paco is the Executive Director and Pamela is the co-founder of Skylight, a human rights media organization dedicated to strengthening social justice movements through cinematic storytelling and catalyzing collaborative networks of artists and activists. In many ways BORDERLAND brings the saga of Skylight’s Guatemala trilogy–When the Mountains Tremble (1983), Granito (2011), and 500 Years (2017)–full circle back to the U.S. From the impact of U.S. foreign policy that backed brutal regimes leading to the root causes of migration, to the present situation of mass migration from Central America. 

Our Sponsors

This event is supported by the Human Rights Film & Digital Media Initiative, a collaborative venture between the Department of Digital Media & Design and the Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs at the Gladstein Family Human Rights, as well as UConn’s El Instituto (Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies).