About this Guide
This guide provides a curated selection of published materials, manuscript collections, and digitized materials available in the CTDA. The guide is meant to provide a starting point for research into human rights issues in UConn's Archives & Special Collections--it is not a comprehensive listing of all materials related to these topics held by the UConn Archives & Special Collections.
Several pages of this guide draw from previous work done by Archives & Special Collections staff and student workers presented through Collection Spotlights hosted on the Archives & Special Collections blog. These posts are linked throughout the guide, and can provide you with additional information and resources on the topics covered on the guide.
About the Human Rights Collections in Archives & Special Collections
The University of Connecticut’s Archives & Special Collections holds many collections related to research topics on human rights. The Human Rights collections document human rights violations in the United States and internationally, struggles for social justice, artistic responses, and advocacy efforts by individuals, non-governmental organizations, and state agencies. The Human Rights collections include the Thomas J. Dodd Papers, which document his work as Chief Trial Counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, oral histories and documentation gathered in partnership with the African National Congress in South Africa and the Center for Oral History at the University of Connecticut, the records and library of Human Rights Internet, the records of the Coalition for International Justice, and the Refugee Case Files of the International Rescue Committee. Audiovisual collections include the Impact Visuals Photograph Collection, the U. Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers, as well as the Mia Farrow and Eric Reeves collections on the Darfur Crisis. Additional human rights materials can be found in the Alternative Press Collection, which contains thousands of national and international newspapers, serials, books, pamphlets, ephemera and artifacts documenting activist themes and organizations, spanning from the 1800s to the present.
Related Resources
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d’Archive Episode 4: Abbie Hoffman, UConn and the War in VietnamThe American invasion of Vietnam and campus recruitment by petro-chemical companies matched by growing disparities between haves and have-nots and its reflection in a lack of students of color at UConn led to the beginning of student demonstrations in 1968. Popular national counter culture icons like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin of the Yippee’s and Chicago 7 are featured in the waning days of the movement. This episode discusses the 1960s Alternative Press activist collections contained in the Archives & Special Collections.
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d’Archive Episode 6: Child Labor and Human Rights PhotographyThis episode of d’Archive features a discussion about the U. Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers with guests Len Morris, director, educator and child advocate from Media Voices for Children and Brooke Foti-Gemmell, design technologist of UConn’s Greenhouse Studios. The Romano Papers at UConn’s Archives & Special Collections are an extensive collection of photography, research files, work prints and electronic records relating to Robin’s work of documenting child labor in the US and throughout the world. Len’s 30 year collaboration with Robin resulted in several award winning documentary films and successful campaigns to combat child labor in many different supply chains from agriculture, to resource extraction to light manufacturing. Brooke, former archivist assistant, along with archivist Graham Stinnett curated an exhibition in the fall of 2017 to be displayed at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center in conjunction with the Business & Human Rights Initiative Conference on stakeholders and their roles in light manufacturing.
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d’Archive Episode 15: Universal Declaration of Human RightsThis episode highlights the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10, 1948. Featured in conversation is Dr. Glenn Mitoma, Assistant Professor of Human Rights Education at UConn’s Neag School of Ed. and Director of the Dodd Center, discussing the history and impact of this landmark document in addition to its relationship to contemporary issues around citizenship, gun control and internment. The Archives & Special Collections of the UConn Library, holds significant collections stemming from the Trials at Nuremberg in 1946 and subsequent human rights records relating to the founding principles of the UDHR.
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d’Archive Episode 23: In the Crosshairs – Proxy War and PhotojournalismAuthor, Photojournalist and Associate Professor Scott Wallace at UConn’s School of Journalism, joins me for a conversation about his exhibition In the Crosshairs: Dispatches from Central America, 1983-1990, which was on display February 15 – March 15, 2019 in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the UConn Storrs campus. This exhibition featured Scott’s photography, audio and written reportage during his time in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala as a foreign correspondent for CBS news. Scott’s interest in photography, his place as a journalist and his continued interest in evolving stories from colonialism to immigration and the environment make the American role in Central America all the more relevant to today.
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d’Archive Episode 26: 1974 Black Student Sit In @ Wilbur Cross LibraryThis episode features an overview of collection materials in the archives documenting the Black Student sit in of April 22, 1974 in the Wilbur Cross Library at UConn. This direct action came as a student response to several grievances regarding structural racism in higher education and locally in the Anthropology Department.
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d’Archive Episode 28: Day-Glo & NapalmGuest Curator, George Jacobi and Chris Malis join me for a conversation about the UConn Archives exhibition Day-Glo & Napalm: UConn 1967-1971. As UConn alumni, and Woodstock audience members, George and Chris discuss the exhibition, their student days at UConn 50 years ago, the music, the attitudes, and the perspectives they hold about the times on this anniversary.
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d’Archive Episode 30: UConn Students for a Democratic SocietyThis episode includes interviews that were collected from UConn alumni and members of the New Left student organization, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at a Woodstock 50th anniversary celebration this summer hosted by guest curator of Day-glo & Napalm, George Jacobi.
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d’Archive Episode 51: Organizing for Change, 1974 Black Student Sit In @ Wilbur Cross LibraryThis episode features an interview with alumni Rodney Bass (BA ’75/MA ’76) who was active in organizing Black students through the Organization of African American Students (OAAS) during his time at the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus. One of the high-water marks for activism by students of color at UConn was the 1974 Black Student Sit-In in Wilbur Cross Library which he served as a representative for when delivering demands to the administration of President Glenn W. Ferguson. Rodney walks us through the days leading up to this protest and contextualizes the experiences of Black students on the Storrs campus during that period.
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"The Hidden Costs of Chocolate: How Child Labor Became A Human Rights Issue" Exhibition
Dr. Fiona Vernal from the University of Connecticut’s History Department sits down to discuss how her relationship with the UConn Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center has informed her teaching. Dr. Vernal has incorporated collections such as the U. Roberto Romano Papers and the African National Congress Oral History Collection into her classroom for a new type of learning experience that teaches in-demand skills in human rights work in order to prepare her students for the work force. -
25 for 25: Black Student Sit-In Photographs, 1974
This video explores the Black student sit-in of April 22-24, 1974 at the University of Connecticut's Wilbur Cross Library. Using black and white photographs taken by the University photographer, we contextualize and explore the recorded past to help demonstrate the impact of students of color involved in antiracist activism on the Storrs campus since the late 1960s. -
25 for 25: Thomas J. Dodd and the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg
On 8 August 1945, the charter of the International Military Tribunal declared that aggressive war was an international crime. The subsequent establishment of an International Military Tribunal, located in Nuremberg, Germany, with the task of prosecuting the remaining major Nazi leaders for their actions both before and during World War II was precedent-setting. This would be the first time that an international court would hold the individual leaders of a nation responsible for its treatment of both its own citizens and citizens of other countries during war time. Connecticut’s own Thomas J. Dodd of Norwich, was appointed Executive Trial Counsel for the United States, working closely with Justice Robert Jackson to support the Allied case against the Nazi leaders. Dodd’s papers provide a unique perspective on the trial through this brief video summary. -
Lifting The Veil: An Exhibition of the U.Roberto Romano Papers
This video features a gallery talk by Brooke Foti Gemmell, Assistant Archivist and Graham Stinnett, Archivist of Human Rights Collections at the UConn Archives & Special Collections. The materials featured in this exhibition were drawn from the U. Roberto Romano Papers held in the UConn Archives.
The materials on display demonstrate Robin's use of multiple platforms of media to document and disseminate child labor in light manufacturing industries across the globe for NGO's such as Rugmark/Goodweave, Free the Slaves and the Child Labor Coalition. This exhibition was installed to run concurrently with the Business & Human Rights Initiative Conference, “Protecting Rights at the End of the Line: Stakeholder Engagement in Light Manufacturing” held on October 5-6, 2017 at the UConn Storrs campus. -
Stolen Childhoods in 4D - Spring 2017
Students from Professor Anna Lindemann's Spring 2017 Motion Graphics I courses used various techniques to bring motion and dynamics to photographs from Robin Romano's Stolen Childhoods Collection. These images are part of the U. Roberto (Robin) Romano Papers at the University of Connecticut's Archives & Special Collections Department; the collection documents child laborers around the world in a wide array of industries.
10 Tips for Navigating Archival Research
Top 10 tips citation
The 10 tips for Navigating Archival Research slides were originally created by Melica Stinnett in 2022 for the Archives & Special Collections blog.
