{"id":49738,"date":"2011-11-09T08:14:18","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T13:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=49738"},"modified":"2011-11-10T16:46:09","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T21:46:09","slug":"in-our-own-backyard-human-rights-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/11\/in-our-own-backyard-human-rights-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"In Our Own Backyard: Human Rights in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Co-authors<\/a>
Co-editors Davita Silfen Glasberg, left, professor of sociology and associate dean of CLAS, and Bandana Purkayastha, professor of sociology.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When it comes to human rights \u2013 those basic entitlements like free speech, health care, decent wages and education \u2013 it goes without saying that the United States holds the worldwide gold standard. Doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Absolutely not, say two sociologists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n

Their new book, Human Rights in Our Own Backyard: Injustice and Resistance in the United States<\/em><\/a> (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), chronicles the modern struggle for human rights in the U.S., from sweatshops to sex trafficking to racism on college campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. leadership has for a long time pushed the image of having no human rights problems,\u201d says coauthor Davita Silfen Glasberg, professor of sociology and associate dean of CLAS for the social sciences. \u201cSo in this book, we wanted to look at the U.S. and what actually happens with social movements on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Book<\/a>Glasberg and coeditors Bandana Purkayastha, professor of sociology, and former UConn graduate student Bill Armaline, now a professor at San Jose State University, developed the book to be used in a course taught by Glasberg and Purkayastha: Human Rights in the United States.<\/p>\n

Although there\u2019s plenty of scholarly work about human rights, the conversation is mostly through the lens of political science and legal studies \u2013 rarely from a sociological perspective, Glasberg and Purkayastha say. And they want their book to correct for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe share a deep interest in the kinds of movements people have organized to claim substantive rights,\u201d says Purkayastha. \u201cSometimes there are laws on the books, but what happens on the ground is very different. Do people stop and wait for the state to give them things?\u201d<\/p>\n

The book touches on economic, social, cultural, and political and civil rights; it also discusses racial and gender discrimination. Movements in opposition to such recent activities as predatory lending by banks, the lack of food and shelter following Hurricane Katrina, oppression of Native American tribes, and the rejection of gay marriage are all recounted in detail.<\/p>\n

One such example tells of a movement on UConn\u2019s campus that began in 2001, when undergraduate students occupied the lobby outside then-president Philip Austin\u2019s office, asking that UConn reform its policies on purchasing athletic apparel bearing the UConn logo. Citing terrible worker conditions and wages too low to live on in third-world factories, the students demanded that the University do business only with merchants that treated their employees fairly.<\/p>\n

Now, 10 years later, students at UConn and around the country have made great strides in the sweatshop movement, convincing their schools to change many of their purchasing habits. But the struggle still continues, and that\u2019s part of the point of the book, says Glasberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t give answers in this book,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not academics talking down to people and telling them what to do. We lay out the issue and talk about what people are actually doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students in their human rights class, then, can discuss what should happen next in these situations, she explains. The class has been so popular that Glasberg and Purkayastha offer it every semester.<\/p>\n

Because of the attention their book has received, Glasberg has also been appointed president of the U.S. chapter of Sociologists Without Borders, an international society that is committed to equal rights and freedoms around the world.<\/p>\n

But probably more important, the researchers say, their book has opened doors for countless students in their classes, encouraging them to engage in social movements in ways they hadn\u2019t thought of before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s proof that you can get involved in so many ways,\u201d says Purkayastha. \u201cThere are so many ways to be a change agent \u2013 you can be creative about it. You just have to dream and you have to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds Glasberg: \u201cWe can say to students, look! Right here, success! Look at the power that you can have!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new book by two sociology professors examines the struggle for human rights in this country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-49738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:58:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49738"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49760,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49738\/revisions\/49760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/49797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49738"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=49738"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}