The Anthology
Human Rights and the Arts in Global Asia: An Anthology, co-edited by Theodore (Ted) Goossen (Humanities) and Anindo Hazra (English) was recently published by Lexington Books.
The Workshop
This international workshop explored debates about the subjects and contexts of human rights by examining creative "texts" from global Asia. Presenters from a range of humanities, fine arts, and social science disciplines analyzed film, literature, performance and poetry to shed light on key human rights issues in the region and beyond. The workshop, held on 11–12 May 2012, was part of the Literatures and Human Rights in Asia and Asian Diaspora research programme, which aims to help bring global Asia perspectives and experiences more centrally into scholarly debates about human rights, while avoiding the essentializing of context and taking into account the limitations of both the human rights approach and the arts themselves.
The keynote for the two day event was given by Peter Kwong (Professor, Asian American Studies and Urban Affairs and Planning, Hunter College). He spoke on ‘Crossing Boundaries: Challenges of Combining the Roles of Activist, Scholar, Filmmaker and Journalist.’ The discussant was Ali Kazimi (Department of Film).
The workshop programme is available here.
It was organized by Susan J. Henders (Political Science) and Theodore W. Goossen (Humanities)
The workshop was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, the Office of the Vice‐President, Research & Innovation and the York Centre for Asian Research.