News
Human Rights Awareness at Manhattanville
10.23.08
Human Rights Awareness Day
Manhattanville College (Purchase, NY) – Monday October 20th, 2008 at Manhattanville College, students, faculty, administrators, staff, and alumni came together to participate in the second annual Human Rights Awareness Day program. The day long program consisted of multiple activities including speakers talking about various topics concerned with some aspect of human rights violations, opportunities to write letters to members of Congress expressing the need for U.S. humanitarian aid and political action in Darfur, interactive artistic responses to genocide literature, fundraising for the Genocide Intervention Network, and viewing a series of films and documentaries on human rights violations and genocide.
Following opening remarks by President Richard Berman, which focused on the ways in which holding a Human Rights Awareness Day at Manhattanville College complimented the college’s mission of ensuring the intellectual, ethical and social development of each student, seven speakers gave presentations throughout the day and evening.
- Prof. Irene Whelan, Ph.D., of the History department and director of Irish Studies, spoke about Apocalypticism and Genocide: The Lessons from History. Dr. Whelan spoke about pre and postmillenarianism and Christ’s second coming within the context of our political and cultural life. The talk began with a depiction of apocalyptic events during the middle 1800’s in Ireland and India and the ramifications those events had within the Irish and Indian societies. Moving forward to the present time, Dr. Whelan ended her presentation with a video clip taken from Bill Moyers Journal reporting on the Christians United for Israel led by Pastor John Hagee, Senior Pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.
- Olivia Bailey, a student at Manhattanville College, spoke next. For four months Ms. Bailey was an intern at the United Nations Department of Public Information office. This past September Ms. Bailey traveled to Paris to attend the UN’s Department of Public Information/Non Governmental Organizations’ conference, which marked the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Human Rights. Ms. Bailey encouraged the students in the audience to begin with what really was of interest and importance to them and, then, find an avenue to form a group or engage with a group that focused on that interest. A discussion with members of the audience concentrated on the frustrations of the seeming inaction of the UN, on the hopes and possibilities offered by the UN, and the services and benefits provided by various divisions with the UN such as UNICEF.
- Prof. Jane Gangi, Ph.D., chair of the School of Education Literacy Department, led a workshop entitled, Teaching Them While They’re Young to Hate. A Workshop on Children’s and Young Adult Literature and “The Other”. Dr. Gangi began the workshop with a brief overview of types of dehumanizing representations of race in children’s literature and showed current literature that still contain dehumanizing representations. Workshop participants, then, looked at specific selections of problematic juvenile and young adult books and discussed samples of text that degrade, misrepresent, or in some way inaccurately portray a group of people. Dr. Gangi shared with the group books that do have positive and authentic representations plus her extensive bibliographies of appropriate and outstanding representative juvenile/young adult literature.
- Sel Hubert, a Holocaust survivor, related personal stories of Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport. The audience members were deeply moved by the truthful and direct manner in which Mr. Hubert spoke of the harsh and dreadful realities of the Holocaust.
- Mark Hanis, the founder and director of Genocide Intervention Network spoke about the Responsibility to Protect: Darfur and Beyond. During his senior year of college Mr. Hanis and a college friend first read in a New York Times editorial about the situation in Darfur, and together in the fall of 2004, Mr. Hanis and other college students at Swarthmore College founded the Genocide Intervention Fund to give concerned citizens a way to protect civilians from genocide. The organization moved to Washington, DC and now focuses on educating about, advocating for, and fundraising in order to empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. Mr. Hanis is the grandson of four Holocaust survivors and hopes through the Genocide Intervention Network to make the phrase, “never again” as is applied to genocide, a worldwide reality. For the students in the audience, Mr. Hanis represented what Ms. Bailey spoke about in her discussion – looking to your passionate interest as the beginning point for future involvement in human rights issues.
- The evening ended with a co-presentation by Prof. Jimmy Jones, D. Min. of the World Religions Department, and Irwin Hochberg, a real estate developer and member of many Jewish community organizations. This semester Professors Jones and Hochberg are co-teaching a course Advocacy-Peace: Mid East. The title of their presentation was Terrorism and Human Rights in the American Context and ended the evening firmly planted in our world of today. Each spoke, from his own perspective developed through life experiences and beliefs, about 9/11 - what it signified for us in the United States and the reactions and actions of the United States to this event.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Editor -in-Chief, of MultiCultural Review magazine was in attendance throughout the day. She distributed copies of the current edition of the magazine, which includes an article by Dr. Gangi, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Literacy Instruction: Realizing the Implications of the Proficient Reader Research.” Ms. Miller-Lachmann also showed two videos - Taxi To The Dark Side - an in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002 (The Internet Movie Database) and A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman - an exploration of exile, memory, longing and democracy through the words and memories of playwright/author/activist Ariel Dorfman (The Internet Movie Database).
Acting Provost Edgar Schick ended the evening by thanking the presenters and the Manhattanville community for participating in the days’ events with special thanks to Dr. Jane Gangi, chair of the Human Rights Awareness Day Committee. The Human Rights Awareness Day project grew out of a Genocide Awareness Day held in 2007. The success of that event propelled faculty, students, staff, administrators, and alumni to work towards organizing this second annual Human Rights Awareness Day.
The day was made possible by the generous donations from the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, Dean of Students Office, Duchesne Center, Castle Scholars Honors Program, Office of Student Activities, and contribution of time from Manhattanville College students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators. Special thanks go to President Richard Berman and Interim Provost and Vice President Edgar Schick for their support and donations.
Pictured: (L to R) Mark Hanis, the founder and director of Genocide Intervention Network; Dr. Jane Gangi, chair of the Human Rights Awareness Day Committee; Sel Hubert, a Holocaust survivor; Richard Berman, President of Manhattanville College; Marlene Yahalom, Director of Education, Holocaust and Human Rights Study Center.
Manhattanville College (www.manhattanville.edu) is an independent, co-educational liberal arts institution whose mission is to educate ethically and socially responsible leaders for the global community. Located just 30 minutes from New York City, Manhattanville serves 1,600 undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students from 58 countries and 39 states. Founded in 1841, the College offers more than 45 undergraduate areas of study in the arts and sciences and has one of the largest teacher education programs in New York State.