The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas School of Law is pleased to announce its eleventh annual conference, to take place April 23-24, 2015. The conference is free and open to the public. Registration is strongly encouraged.
The culmination of a three-year project on Sissy Farenthold funded by the Creekmore and Adele Fath Charitable Foundation, this conference will consider from both an historical and contemporary perspective many of the issues to which Sissy has dedicated her life. The conference will be closely tied to the Frances T. “Sissy” Farenthold Papers at UT’s Briscoe Center for American History, which touch on many facets of her wide-ranging career, from her political campaigns to her important role in national and international women’s movements and in human rights advocacy around the world.
The conference will begin on Thursday afternoon with an interview of Sissy by The Texas Tribune‘s Evan Smith, the screening of original short films, and the launch of our online exhibition based on Sissy’s life and career.
The conference will continue all day Friday with three panels that represent Sissy’s work at the state, national, and international levels, all centered around specific documents from her papers. Scholars, legislators, advocates, and journalists will consider the documents through their respective lenses, using the historical materials to engage in contemporary discussion of the issues raised. Panels will focus on reproductive rights and gay rights; peace, disarmament, and the international women’s movement; and Texas electoral politics and the vocal minority.
This is truly a not-to-be-missed event: one of the law school’s vital and valued centers taking a serious look at one of our most distinguished and cherished alumnae.