Activities
The Center’s research and activities coalesce around four principal issue areas—Business and Human Rights, Environmental Justice, International Institutions, and Forced Migration and Human Rights—and are informed by the Kenan Institute’s “think and do tank” model of a reciprocal relationship between theory and practice.
Collaborations in 2013-2014
Bass Connections: Displacement, Resettlement and Global Mental Health Work Group. Kenan Institute for Ethics, Global Health, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. In an extension of the Kenan Institute for Ethics’ ongoing fieldwork with refugees both abroad and locally (through programs such as DukeImmerse), this working group will build on the existing archive of refugee narratives from urban, refugee camp, and resettlement contexts to study how the resettlement process, a global and transnational program where refugees are provided settlement in countries such as the United States, affects the mental health and well-being of refugees. While there are growing bodies of research on pre- and post-displacement, this project will look at resettlement as a global process which has implications for refugee health at different points, from the country of first asylum to the resettlement country. Prior research will be augmented by additional fieldwork in Jordan and Lebanon.
Workshops and Conference in 2013-2014
- DNA, Human Rights and Trafficking. September 13, the second in a series of workshops on issues surrounding the use of DNA in identification for victims of trafficking will be held as part of an ongoing project between DHRC at KIE, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.
Speakers and Series in 2013-2014
Conversations in Human Rights. This academic year, the Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics is hosting a new interdisciplinary workshop series, “Conversations in Human Rights.” This workshop series will meet twice each semester, bringing together panelists from other institutions and Duke faculty to engage with their research on hot-button international human rights issues. A discussion-focused series drawing together the social sciences, humanities, law, and policy, these workshops are open to Duke faculty, graduate students, and postdocs. A reception will follow each workshop. Email amber.diaz@duke.edu with questions or to RSVP.
- Religious Freedom and Persecution. Tuesday, September 24, 4:00-6:00 p.m., 101 West Duke Building. Panelists: Carolyn Warner, Arizona State University, Anthony Gill, University of Washington; Discussant/Moderator: Michael Gillespie, Duke University

