UConn Human Rights Symposium

It’s election season! Join us for a student-led dialogue centering on issues of voting and voter participation at the local, state, and national levels. This dialogue will feature small group discussions facilitated by experts, followed by a Q&A session with UConn faculty and community partners. Participants will also get the opportunity to register to vote!

This event is held in collaboration with the University of Connecticut’s Undergraduate Student Government and representatives from the Human Rights and Action Learning Community, Community Outreach, Dodd Impact’s Democracy and Dialogues Initiative, and the Office of Outreach and Engagement.

 Light refreshments will be provided.

Strategies to Address Structural Barriers to Economic Inclusion and Well-being Among Families Experiencing Poverty in the United States

Over the past quarter century, significant strides have been made in reducing child poverty, largely due to increased investments in the social safety net for children. Our nation has learned a lot about what works to reduce child poverty. However, significant challenges to sustaining and continuing this progress remain. In particular, stark disparities in child poverty among racial and ethnic lines, for children in immigrant families, and by family structure persist. In addition, the focus of support has shifted towards working families near or above the poverty line, inadvertently leaving behind children and families experiencing deep poverty.

Dr. Thomson will share findings across multiple projects designed to better understand the structural barriers to economic inclusion and wellbeing for families of color, immigrant families, and those experiencing deep poverty. She will highlight policy levers and programmatic strategies that show promise for addressing those barriers, promoting economic inclusion, and improving wellbeing for all children and families.

Sponsored by the Department of Human Development & Family Sciences, with generous support from the Luckey family.

If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at 860.486.4049 or cynthia.stewart@uconn.edu by Wednesday, October 2^nd.

About This Event

This lecture will delve into migration and time-making projects, examining both human and animal movement. Instead of solely focusing on traditional ‘pull-push’ factors of human migration, Columba González-Duarte will propose a framework for understanding multispecies mobility through the connections between monarch and human migration. Participants will engage with the concept of migration as micropolitics, challenging racialized border control and exploring more-than-human mobility justice that questions the naturalization of state borders.

Lunch will be served! Kindly register below.

About Our Guest

Columba González-Duarte

Assistant Professor, The New School for Social Research

Pursuing a greater understanding of the relationship between monarch butterflies and the people and communities they interact with has carried Dr. Columba Gonzalez-Duarte far, connecting her roots in Mexico to Toronto and to her new home in New York City. Through her research, Columba examines the conservation dynamics of the monarch butterfly across three nations, analyzing the connections between NAFTA’s agri-food industry, labor migration, and the decline of the monarch population. She also collaborates with scientific and Indigenous communities in Canada, the United States, and Mexico to document their knowledge and ways of relating to migratory insects. Dr. Gonzalez-Duarte’s academic practice is shaped by feminist ethics of care, promoting a different form of justice that values the well-being of both humans and more-than-humans during their migratory journeys across North America.

To gain a deeper understanding of her research, publications, student projects, and media, please visit www.columbagonzalez.com.