September 17, 2001

The Human Rights Semester will officially kickoff on Thursday, Sept. 20, with a lecture by Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, the Marsha Lilien Gladstein Visiting Professor in Human Rights. Howard-Hassmann, a professor of sociology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, will deliver the talk "Human Rights and the Culture Wars" at 4 p.m. in the Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

In addition to being a sociology professor, Howard-Hassmann is also an associate member of the political science department at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Howard-Hassmann is the associate director of McMaster University's Research Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition. She originated and directed the school's now defunct undergraduate minor Theme School on International Justice and Human Rights.

Howard-Hassmann's books include the forthcoming Compassionate Canadians: Citizens Discuss Human Rights; Colonialism and Underdevelopm ent in Ghana, Human Rights in Commonwealth Africa; and Human Rights and the Search for Community. She is the co-editor of the International Handbook of Human Rights. Howard-Hassmann has written many articles on human rights and development in Africa; women's rights in Africa and elsewhere; Canadian foreign policy and Canadian refugee policy; and theoretical, methodological and sociological issues in international and Canadian human rights.

Howard-Hassmann's lecture is one of more than three dozen human rights-related activities taking place on UConn's campuses this fall as part of the Human Rights Semester. Designated by Chancellor John D. Petersen, the Semester is intended to underscore the importance of human rights and to inform and engage members of the University community and interested members of the public about this critical topic.

Allison Thompson