The Human Rights Day Lecture
Beyond the "War" on Covid: Portal to a More Just Society
Catherine Powell

Building off her earlier work on the Color of Covid, Prof. Powell’s talk analyzes the wartime framing of “fighting” a war on COVID-19. The talk will question what is meant by “security”—by “racing” national security and interrogating what the concept of “security” foregrounds and erases. What kinds of expertise it empowers and whose knowledge matters in identifying threats?

Using feminist, racial justice, and other critical frameworks, Prof. Powell proposes an alternative paradigm to meet the current moment with an ethics, politics, and law of care, rather than a framework of war, militarization and securitization, as this latter approach often promote “law and order” over justice.

UICHR hosts an annual Human Rights Day Lecture to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948. This year’s Lecture is in memory of Shams Ghoneim, longtime member of UICHR’s Advisory Board, who passed away on September 5.

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023
12:45–1:45 p.m. CST

Zoom ID: 950 9180 7028

Sponsored by UICHR, International & Comparative Law Programs, and Blacks of the American Society of International Law
https://www.uichr.uiowa.edu