Evidence and Human Rights in a Post Truth World

A Multidisciplinary Symposium held at UCLA on January 16-17 and February 21-22, 2020.

About the series: The arena of human rights documentation has never been more critical to global justice, and is also undergoing radical change as a result of new systems of evidentiary production inspired by satellite and other innovative information technologies. Geospatial and sensing technologies include a range of tools used in the discovery, collection, presentation, analysis and management of location-based data. These tools are changing how we see and interpret suffering bodies, infrastructural destruction and cultural as well as human genocide. They are raising questions about whether mass atrocities and other violence committed against large numbers of civilians are demonstrable and prosecutable through new digital forms of forensic practice. At the same time, they raise the hopes and expectations of survivors of victims and the missing, who are clamoring for evidence collected by citizens and NGOs to be accorded the same evidentiary authority as that created by government authorities.

This two-part lecture/workshop series explores the politics, aesthetics, affect, and interpretation of geospatial images as well as the architectures of knowledge production and the challenges that emerge when using these technologies. By inviting key leaders in the field for two 2-day events during Winter Quarter 2020 (January 16-17 and February 21-22), we will engage in discussion concerning how social scientists, lawyers, human rights advocates, architects and artists use these technologies to produce composite knowledge about critical events.

Organizers (UCLA): Kamari Clarke (Anthropology), Anne Gilliland (Graduate School of Education & Information Studies/Archival Studies), Laurie Kain Hart (Anthropology/Global Studies), Saloni Mathur (Art History), Susan Slyomovics (Anthropology/Near Eastern Languages and Cultures), Robert Farley (Comparative Literature, Graduate Assistant)

Cost : Free and open to the public. RSVP required for admission.

Sponsors: Center for European and Russian Studies, Center for Near Eastern Studies, Anthropology, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Art History, The Promise Institute for Human Rights, UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, UCLA Arts Initiative, UCLA Interdisciplinary and Cross Campus Affairs, The Wende Museum

• Cultural Memory under Fire: Documenting the Destruction and Preservation of Archives and Libraries in the Wars of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s

  The 2020 Kenneth Karmiole Lecture in Archival Studies by Andras Riedlmayer (Harvard University). Part 1 of the two-part series “Evidence and Human Rights in a Post-Truth World: A Multidisciplinary Symposium.”
  Thursday, January 16, 2020
  5:30 PM
  Exploration Room, UCLA Luskin Conference Center

• Cultural Destruction, Technology, and the Future of Human Rights Practice

  Roundtable discussion with Brad Samuels (SITU, New York), Andras Riedlmayer (Harvard University), Hariz Halilovich (Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Australia), and Robert Farley (Comparative Literature, UCLA). Part 1 of the two-part series “Evidence and Human Rights in a Post-Truth World: A Multidisciplinary Symposium.”
  Friday, January 17, 2020
  9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
  111 GSE&IS Building

• Forensic Architecture: Socialising Evidence

  A public lecture by Eyal Weizman (Spatial and Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London). Part 2 of the two-part series “Evidence and Human Rights in a Post-Truth World: A Multidisciplinary Symposium.”
  Friday, February 21, 2020
  5:00 PM
  UCLA James Bridges Theater (1409 Melnitz Hall)

• Evidence and Human Rights in a Post Truth World: Eyal Weizman and the Forensic Architecture Project

  A workshop and discussion with Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Nathan Su (UCLA). Part 2 of the two-part series “Evidence and Human Rights in a Post-Truth World: A Multidisciplinary Symposium.”
  Saturday, February 22, 2020
  10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
  248 Dodd Hall