Human Rights Pasts and Futures
September 23, 4:30-6 p.m. (Zoom)

In this first and framing dialogue, the Global Arts + Humanities Society of Fellows brought scholars together to consider the potential and limitations of human rights.
Featuring: Iyko Day (Associate Professor, English and Critical Social Thought, Mount Holyoke College); Tiffany Lethabo King (Assistant Professor, African-American Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Georgia State University); Shui-yin Sharon Yam (Associate Professor, Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies, University of Kentucky)
Moderator: Treva Lindsey (Associate Professor, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State)

Disability, Sexuality and Human Rights
October 21, 4:30-6 p.m. (Zoom)

Dialogue two brought scholars and activists together to consider the potential of human rights frames, cultural representations and institutions to address violence against people with disabilities and LGBTQIA populations.
Featuring: Amrita Dhar (Assistant Professor, Department of English, Ohio State-Newark); Sona Hill Kazemi (Research Justice at the Intersections Fellow, Mills College); Eunjung Kim (Associate Professor, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University); Rachel Lewis (Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies Program, George Mason University); Ila Nagar (Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Ohio State)
Moderator: Amy Shuman (Professor, Department of English/Center for Folklore Studies, Ohio State)

Migrant Rights Within Empire, Art Activism and Democracy
November 18, 4:30-6 p.m. (Zoom)

This panel considered how the pandemic engendered new conversations about “essential” workers and rights violations. More broadly, panelists considered how scholars, activists and artists employ or challenge human rights frameworks in countering cultures of empire, authoritarianism and neoliberal structures of oppression.
Featuring: Víctor M. Espinosa (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Ohio State-Newark); Paloma Martinez-Cruz (Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Ohio State); Cristian Pineda (Multidisciplinary Visual Artist, Mérida, Yucatán; Inés Valdez (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Ohio State)
Moderator: Guisela Latorre (Professor, Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State)

Post/Human Rights, Indigeneity and Environmental Justice
February 1, 3:30-5 p.m. (Zoom)

Dialogue four considered the challenges that the Anthropocene epoch poses to human and non-human life and the potential of cultural practices and newly-imagined ethical concepts for addressing these challenges. Panelists discussed how aesthetic and cultural practices generate attachments to the places we inhabit, and how posthuman renderings, such as augmented reality applications, encourage embodied experiences that connect humans empathetically with the biodiversity of seen and unseen worlds. 
Featuring: Tommy Davis (Associate Professor, Department of English, Ohio State); Tristram McPherson (Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Ohio State); Elissa Washuta (Assistant Professor, Department of English, Ohio State); Amy Youngs (Associate Professor, Department of Art, Ohio State)
Moderator: Michael Mercil (Professor, Department of Art, Ohio State)

Cultural Heritage, Colonialism and Human Rights
March 8, 3:30-5 p.m. (Zoom)

Dialogue five considered the tension between framing culture and nature as “heritage” and maintaining viable lifeworlds for communities. How has the decolonizing turn across disciplines helped us to interpret these situations?
Featuring: Mary Hufford (GAHDT Visiting Senior Scholar, Center for Folklore Studies, Ohio State); Sarah Van Beurden (Associate Professor, Departments of History/African and African American Studies, Ohio State); Michelle Wibbelsman (Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Ohio State)
Moderator: Dorothy Noyes (Professor, Departments of English and Comparative Studies, Ohio State)

Human Rights Beyond Carceral Systems
April 5, 3:30-5 p.m. (Zoom)

In our final dialogue, panelists considered the political utility of human rights frameworks for addressing questions related to carceral systems and the role of the arts and humanities in imagining alternatives to carceral systems.
Featuring: Dionne Custer Edwards (Director of Learning and Public Practice, Wexner Center for the Arts); Annie Isabel Fukushima (Assistant Professor, Division of Ethnic Studies, University of Utah); Tiyi Morris (Associate Professor, Department of African and African American Studies, Ohio State-Newark); Elaine Richardson (Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, Ohio State); Mary Thomas (Associate Professor, Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State)
Moderator: Jennifer Suchland (Associate Professor, Departments of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, Ohio State)

COVID-19: Viral Racism
September 22, 10:30 a.m. to noon (Zoom)

Drawing on her research, Iyko Day reviewed the historical depictions of Asians linked to their longstanding associations with a destructive economism.
Workshop leader: Iyko Day (Associate Professor, Department of English and Critical Social Thought—Mount Holyoke College)
Moderator: Jian Chen (Associate professor, Departments of English and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies)

Transnationalizing Pandemic Rhetorics
September 24, 10-11:30 a.m. (Zoom)

This workshop introduced the rhetorical framework of "deliberative empathy," and invited participants to examine the pandemic and the coinciding wave of global uprising as a coalitional moment.
Workshop leader: Shui-yin Sharon Yam (Associate Professor, Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies—University of Kentucky)
Moderator: Wendy S. Hesford (Professor, Department of English—Ohio State, and faculty director of the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme—Ohio State)

Decolonization in the Now
October 1, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Zoom)

This workshop explored methods, questions, theoretical frames and sites of analysis that facilitate bringing Black studies and Native studies into conversation. Workshop leader: Tiffany Lethabo King (Assistant professor, Departments of African-American Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies—Georgia State University)
Moderator: Shannon Winnubst (Professor and chair, Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies—Ohio State)

Disability and State Violence
October 20, 10-11:30 a.m. (Zoom)

The two presenters for this session work on global dimensions of disability and human rights. The workshop considered the multiple global intersections of disability and state violence.
Workshop leaders: Sona Hill Kazemi (Research Justice at the Intersections Fellow—Mills College) and Rachel Lewis (Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies Program—George Mason University)
Moderator: Margaret Price (Associate Professor, Department of English—Ohio State)

Research as Praxis
April 6, 3:30-5 p.m. (Zoom)

Our final workshop incorporated research as praxis, where central to answering how one crosses into visibility requires the bridging of theory and practice. This workshop is informed by Fukushima’s own commitment to praxis, having worked at all levels of organizations — from volunteer to leadership roles, case worker, programs coordinator and as an expert witness. This workshop will offer insights into local, national and transnational collaborations.
Workshop leader: Annie Isabel Fukushima (Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies Division—The University of Utah)
Moderator: Paloma Martinez-Cruz (Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese—Ohio State)