Activist Scholar Conference: Abriendo Brecha IV

The fourth annual conference on Activist Scholarship in the Americas, Abriendo Brecha IV drew together scholars, activists, artists and others whose research and creative intellectual work is developed and carried out in alignment with communities, organizations, movements or networks working for social justice. This year’s conference theme was “Public Education, Marginalized Publics, and the Politics of Insurgency.” The conference explored how research, and intellectual and artistic production can engage with issues of public education, broadly defined. The Rapoport Center co-sponsored a panel entitled, “Human Rights Clinics in Latin America,” which featured a discussion with four human rights experts on existing types of clinics in Latin America, the relationships between the clinics and their clients, the pedagogical methodology used, the way cases are selected, and the possibility of creating a human rights clinic at the University of Texas. Also, Rapoport Center Human Rights Scholar Annelies Lottman was featured in the workshop “The Living Newspapers Across the Disciplines and The Free Minds Project,” along with several people involved with community activism, including the Humanities Institute’s Living Newspapers Program and The Free Minds Project. The discussion focused on performance as an educational and political tool for human rights and justice.