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Phone: (307) 766-2929
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UW History Department to Host Two Speakers Sept. 27

Brigitta van Rheinberg and Eric Weitz

The University of Wyoming’s Department of History and American Studies will host two guest speakers Friday, Sept. 27. Brigitta van Rheinberg will present in the morning, followed by Eric Weitz in the afternoon. Both events are free and open to the public.

Weitz’s talk, “Re-Thinking Human Rights for the 21st Century,” will be at 4 p.m. in Room 306 of the Classroom Building. He will speak on the paradoxical history of human rights and their emergence globally in the modern era. In particular, Weitz will expose how nationalists internationally have struggled to establish nation-states that subsequently grant rights on a limited basis.

“Dr. Weitz’s research explores one of the main paradoxes of the modern era: the development of human rights standards internationally and, at the same time, the expansion and intensification of ethnic cleansing, population transfers, systematic torture, genocide and other crimes against humanity,” says Adam Blackler, assistant professor in the Department of History and American Studies. “Although we all have at least an implicit understanding of rights, there are many different sets of rights and many conflicts about their meanings. Dr. Weitz’s talk will inspire us to challenge our own assumptions on these issues, as well as to interrogate the potential shortcomings of human rights legislation today.”

Weitz’s latest book, “A World Divided: The Global Struggle for Human Rights in the Age of Nation-States,” will be available for purchase after the lecture. Weitz is a distinguished professor of history and the former dean of humanities and arts at the City College of New York. His talk is part of the UW history program’s Cone Lecture Series.

For more information about his book, visit: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13399.html#Princeton%20University%20Press%20|%20Weitz.

The Cone Lecture is made possible by the support of Susan B. Horton Cone. A native of Newcastle and the daughter of a local physician, Cone graduated from UW as a history major in 1931. Throughout her adult life, she spent time in Jackson Hole, Louisiana and California. But, home to Cone was always Newcastle, and the university was never far from her thoughts, according to her biography.

In her later years, Cone expressed a concern that the increasingly technological society was losing sight of the value of the arts and humanities. Seeking to encourage discussion in the humanities, Cone endowed the lecture series in honor of her family.

Van Rheinberg’s talk, “Academic Publishing for the 21st Century,” will be at 10 a.m. in Room 210 of the College of Business. She will speak on effective ways to approach publishing academic works with top-tier journals and university presses. She will focus particular attention on how to find the right publisher for a manuscript, comment on the ideal pitch to strike in proposals and how best to collaborate with a prospective editor.

Van Rheinberg is Princeton University Press’ associate director and director of global development. Her talk is co-sponsored by the Department of History and American Studies, and the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research’s faculty fellows.

Read her blog at http://blog.press.princeton.edu/author/brigittav/.

For more information about either speaker, call Blackler at (307) 766-5142 or email ablackle@uwyo.edu.

 

 

Contact Us

Institutional Communications
Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-2929
Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu


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