Telling the Story
Sept. 15-16, 2005
'Prisoner of Conscience' by Victor Ekpuk
The intent of "Telling the Story" was to analyze, over a two-day period, the process by which human rights violations are documented and the reasons they are made public. The conference brought together practitioners who produce or use documentation of violations — such as journalists, filmmakers, artists, human rights reporters, forensic specialists and legal practitioners — with scholars who approach it from theoretical perspectives – such as legal scholars, women's studies scholars and anthropologists. "Telling the Story" had two principal aims:
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To promote an elevated awareness of the complex processes and decisions that go into documenting human rights violations, thus helping the consumers of such documents to analyze and interpret them with thoughtfulness and skepticism.
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To provide an opportunity for practitioners of human rights documentation to explore systematically these processes and decisions in a multidisciplinary framework.
Academic Directors
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Leigh Swigart, International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.
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Mark Auslander, Department of Anthropology.
Funding Support
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Boston Foundation.
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Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.
Resources
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Request a PDF of the conference report, "Telling the Story: Power and Responsibility in Documenting Human Rights Violations."