As part of its Speaker Series, the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SEWAC) presents Tristan Borer, PhD, Professor of International Affairs and Government, Connecticut College, speaking on: “Shock and Care: Media, Mobilization, and Human Rights” on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015 at the Student Center, Connecticut College
A reception begins at 5:30 p.m. with the talk starting at 6 p.m.
Tristan Anne Borer is Professor of Government and International Relations at Connecticut College in New London, CT. She received her PhD in Government and International Relations at the University of Notre Dame in 1995.
Her theoretical research interests include the politics of human rights, human rights and foreign policy, human rights and the media, the politics of refugees, and the comparative study of transitional justice.
For much of her career she has studied and written about the changing human rights situation in South Africa. In 1994 Borer served as an election observer to the first democratic election in South Africa with the United Nations Observer Mission to South Africa (UNOMSA), and in 2005, she addressed the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the U.S. Department of State and the National Intelligence Council at a conference on “Assessing South Africa’s Future.”
She has twice received a residential scholar fellowship from the Joan Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, as well as a research grant from the United States Institute of Peace. She is the author of the book Challenging the State: Churches as Political Actors in South Africa, 1980-1994, and the editor of the book Telling the Truths: Truth Telling and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Societies, as well as the book Media, Mobilization, and Human Rights: Mediating Atrocity,” on which her talk will be based.
She has also published several articles in the field of human rights in a variety of journals including Human Rights Quarterly, Journal of Human Rights, Violence Against Women, African Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Church and State. Milt Walters, SECWAC’s Chairman, commented “our Members have expressed a strong interest in human rights issues. We’re honored that Ms. Borer, a leading expert, will be sharing her views with us.”
The topic of Professor Borer’s presentation to SECWAC will be how atrocities are portrayed in the media and how that affects international human rights activism.
Based on a news report that the US State Department failed to respond in November 2013 to photographic evidence it had received of torture in Syria, Professor Borer contributed a Letter to the New York Times in January 2014 in which she expressed the concern that, “This conviction — that seeing gruesome pictures of distant atrocities will lead countries to finally take action — has sadly been proved to be nothing more than wishful thinking, a truism whose basis bears no resemblance to reality. Human rights advocates are at a loss; their primary weapon — shock — has proved to be ultimately powerless. Shocking images could never compete with politics, which trumps human rights always and everywhere it appears.”
Her letter may be accessed at the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/opinion/human-rights-inaction.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3AR%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A9%22%7D&_r=0
In its next program, SEWAC presents Thomas de Waal, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on Feb. 12, 2015 at the Crozier Williams Building, Connecticut College. He will speak on “A Painful Centenary: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide?” the topic of his new book “Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide.” Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase.
Guests are welcome to attend these member-supported events. To register as a guest call 860-912-5718 or email [email protected].
The Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) is a regional, non-profit membership organization affiliated with the World Affairs Councils of America. SECWAC fosters an understanding of issues of foreign policy and international affairs through study, debate, and educational programming. SECWAC’s principal activity is to provide a forum for nonpartisan, non-advocacy dialogue between its members and U.S. policy makers and other experts on foreign relations (http://www.secwac.org).