Human Rights

Human Rights

episodes

Interviews with scholars of human rights about their new books.

Channel Sponsors:

Alex Powell, "Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration" (Bristol UP, 2026)

March 17, 2026

Queering UK Refugee Law

Alex Powell
Hosted by Rine Vieth

Utilizing critical legal methodologies, Alex Powell's Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration (Bristol UP, 2026) gives a v…

Sezai Ozan Zeybek, "Animals, Justice, and the Politics of Violence: Shared Struggles in Turkey" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)

March 9, 2026

Animals, Justice, and the Politics of Violence

Sezai Ozan Zeybek
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Animals, Justice, and the Politics of Violence: Shared Struggles in Turkey (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) by Dr. Sezai Ozan Zeybek explores the intricate …

Lorraine Grimes, "Single Mothers in Twentieth-century Ireland and Britain: Pregnancy, Migration and Institutionalization" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

March 4, 2026

Single Mothers in Twentieth-century Ireland and Britain

Lorraine Grimes
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Throughout the twentieth century, many women in Ireland and Britain endured shame and institutionalisation for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. …

David L. Eng, "Reparations and the Human" (Duke UP, 2025)

March 3, 2026

Reparations and the Human

David L. Eng
Hosted by Deep Acharya

The Holocaust and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki invoked in graphic terms the specter of total human destruction. In response, a new in…

A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education

February 26, 2026

A Light in the Tower

Katie Rose Guest Pryal

A Light in the Tower argues that excellent education and radical support for mental health struggles can coexist, and provides detailed advice for how…

Susan Banki, "The Ecosystem of Exile Politics: Why Proximity and Precarity Matter for Bhutan's Homeland Activists" (Cornell UP, 2024)

February 14, 2026

The Ecosystem of Exile Politics

Susan Banki
Hosted by Natali Pearson

The Ecosystem of Exile Politics: Why Proximity and Precarity Matter for Bhutan's Homeland Activists (Cornell UP, 2024), relays the events in Bhutan th…

Lys Kulamadayil, "Pathology of Plenty: Natural Resources in International Law" (Bloomsbury 2025)

February 13, 2026

The Pathology of Plenty

Lys Kulamadayil

In Pathology of Plenty: Natural Resources in International Law (Bloomsbury 2025), Lys Kulamadayil offers a crucial examination of how international la…

The Power of the State: Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, and Minneapolis

February 12, 2026

The Power of the State

Laura Tedesco

When young people began disappearing in Argentina, their mothers searched for answers. Despite laws prohibiting protests and political gatherings, the…

Peer Schouten, "Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

February 8, 2026

Roadblock Politics

Peer Schouten
Hosted by Susan Thomson

Peer Schouten, of the Danish Institute for International Studies, has written a breathtaking book. Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Cent…

Nicole Wegner, "Martialling Peace: How the Peacekeeper Myth Legitimises Warfare" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

January 31, 2026

Martialling Peace

Nicole Wegner
Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Listen:

Martialling Peace: How the Peacekeeper Myth Legitimises Warfare (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) by Dr. Nicole Wegner is not a book about peacekeepi…

Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine

January 29, 2026

Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine

Emile Suotonye DeWeaver

Despite reform efforts that have grown in scope and intensity over the last two decades, the machine of American mass incarceration continues to flour…

Terence Keel, "The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence" (Beacon Press, 2025)

January 23, 2026

The Coroner's Silence

Terence Keel
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

Each year, police officers kill over 1,000 people they’ve sworn to protect and serve. While some cases, like George Floyd’s and Sandra Bland’s, captur…

Andrew I. Port, "Never Again: Germans and Genocide After the Holocaust" (Harvard UP, 2023)

January 11, 2026

Never Again

Andrew I. Port
Hosted by Kelly McFall

As reports of mass killings in Bosnia spread in the middle of 1995, Germans faced a dilemma. Should the Federal Republic deploy its military to the Ba…

Heather Smith-Cannoy et al., "Sex Trafficking and Human Rights: The Status of Women and State Responses" (Georgetown UP, 2022)

January 11, 2026

Sex Trafficking and Human Rights

Heather Smith-Cannoy, Patricia C. Rodda, and Charles Anthony Smith
Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty
Listen:

Human trafficking for the sex trade is a form of modern-day slavery that ensnares thousands of victims each year, disproportionately affecting women a…

Alexa Hagerty, "Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains" (Crown, 2023)

January 6, 2026

Still Life with Bones

Alexa Hagerty
Hosted by Kelly McFall

In Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains (Crown, 2023), anthropologist Alexa Hagerty learns to see the dead body with a forensi…

Robin F. Hansen, "Prison Born: Incarceration and Motherhood in the Colonial Shadow" (U Regina Press, 2024)

December 26, 2025

Prison Born

Robin F. Hansen
Hosted by Rine Vieth

With rigorous scrutiny and deep care, Robin Hansen's Prison Born: Incarceration and Motherhood in the Colonial Shadow (U Regina Press, 2024) offers cr…

Leila Hudson, "Lines of Flight, Assemblages of Home: Syrian Women Displaced" (Syracuse UP, 2025)

December 19, 2025

Lines of Flight, Assemblages of Home: Syrian Women Displaced

Leila Hudson
Hosted by Roberto Mazza

While humanitarian organizations and media outlets often reduce Syrian refugees to statistics or brief anecdotes, the real story of displacement unfol…

Peace A. Medie, "Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa" (Oxford UP, 2020)

December 8, 2025

Global Norms and Local Action

Peace A. Medie
Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty

In Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa (Oxford UP, 2020), Peace A. Medie studies the domestic impleme…

Maja Davidović, "Governing the Past: 'Never Again' and the Transitional Justice Project" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

December 5, 2025

Governing the Past

Maja Davidović

The way we govern the past to ensure peaceful futures keeps conflict anxieties alive. In pursuit of its own survival, permanence and legitimacy, the p…

Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis, "Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics" (Oxford UP, 2025)

December 3, 2025

Dictating the Agenda

Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Following the end of the Cold War, the world experienced a remarkable wave of democratization. Over the next two decades, numerous authoritarian regim…