Call for interdisciplinary abstracts, papers, presentation, posters, roundtables, workshops, and panels that directly or indirectly address the conference theme. Academicians, practitioners, and students are invited and encouraged to participate. All types of research are welcome, including case studies.
This year's theme,
Celebrating Human Rights Heroes, honors the legacy of educator, author, orator and human rights pioneer Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), who rose from slavery to become head of Tuskegee Institute, advisor to presidents, and a dominant voice for African American rights.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Raymond W. Smock will deliver the keynote address on Friday, April 3rd. Smock edited
Booker T. Washington in Perspective: Essays of Louis R. Harlan (1988), coedited the
Booker T. Washington Papers(1972-89), and authored
Booker T. Washington: Black Leadership in the Age of Jim Crow (2009).
Potential Topics
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- Violence Against Women and Children
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- Poverty and Economic Inequality
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- Educating and Training of Women
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- Combating Religious Discrimination
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- Combating Disability Discrimination
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Important Dates/Registration
- Submit abstracts of no more than 300 words by March 1st, 2015 to peytonbj@wvstateu.edu
- Registration is free and open to the public.
Student Competition
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Conference Program:
THURSDAY, APRIL 2
5:30 - 7:30 PM
Honor Diaries Film Screening and Reception
Erickson Alumni Center (
WVSU Campus Map)
Join us for a screening of Honor Diaries, an acclaimed documentary film that features nine women's rights
advocates with connections to Muslim-majority societies who are engaged in a dialogue about gender
inequality. As detailed on
Honor Diaries website, "the film gives a platform to exclusively female voices
and seeks to expose the paralyzing political correctness that prevents many from identifying, understanding
and addressing this international human rights disaster. Freedom of movement, the right to education,
forced marriage, and female genital mutilation are some of the systematic abuses explored in depth."
A reception with light refreshments will immediately follow the film screening.
FRIDAY, APRIL 3
8:00 - 8:45 AM
Conference Registration & Continental Breakfast
Erickson Alumni Center (
WVSU Campus Map)
9:00 - 10:15 AM
Concurrent Session A
Cleveland Room (near front entrance)
9:00 - 9:30 AM
Tae Jin Park, WVSU Associate Professor of History
A Crusade Against Despotism? -Dilemmas in Human Rights Policy toward North Korea
9:30 - 10:00 AM
Harold Barnes, Sr., Center for Quantum Leadership
The Future of Black Colleges & Universities
9:00 - 10:15 AM
Concurrent Session B
Grand Hall
9:00 - 9:30 AM
WVSU Student Access Advocates & WVSU Disability Services Office
Combating Disability Discrimination: Disable the Label
9:30 - 10:00 AM
WVSU Honors Program
Shop to Stop Human Trafficking: Service-Learning Outside the Classroom
10:15 - 10:30 AM
Break
Conference attendees are encourage to visit the student poster area during the break . Winning poster entries will be announced after lunch and prior to the keynote lecture.
10:30 AM - 12:15 PM
Concurent Session C
Grand Hall
10:30 - 11:00 AM
James Spencer, WVSU Professor of Psychology (retired)
Herman George Canady: Clinician, Academician, and Human Rights Pioneer
11:00 - 11:30 AM
Bernice Frazier, President/CEO Southern Christian Leadership Foundation, Inc.
HIV AIDS Policy
11:30 AM - 12:oo PM
Peter Lee, City University of New York Brooklyn College
Health & Human Rights - A Case Study in Rural India
10:30 AM - 12:15 PM
Concurrent Session D
Cleveland Room (near front entrance)
10:30 - 11:15 AM
Logan K. Bush, Malak M. Khader, Shaleena G. Ross, Damien Arthur - Marshall University
LGBTQ Persons & Workplace Discrimination: Religious Objection, Expression & Exemption after Burwell
v. Hobby Lobby
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Becky Francis, Kerri Steele, Brenda Wamsley, Casandra Whyte, Jessica Barnes-Pietryszynski - WVSU
Faculty
The Intersection of Teaching & Human Rights Issues: A Roundtable Discussion
12:15 - 1:15 PM
Lunch
Lunch for Conference attendees is on your own, and box lunches will be served to conference participants and presenters
1:30 - 2:45 PM
Keynote Address (includes Q&A)
Grand Hall
Dr. Raymond W. Smock
Booker T. Washington in History and Memory
Join us as we honor the legacy of educator, author, and human rights pioneer Booker T. Washington (1865 -1915), who rose from slavery to become head of Tuskegee Institute, advisor to presidents, and a dominant voice for African American rights.
Dr. Smock co-edited the 14-volume
Booker T. Washington Papers, and is author of
Booker T. Washington:
Black Leadership in the age of Jim Crow (2009). He will share unique insight about Washington's
importance to American history, the strength and weakness of his Atlanta Address, ideas of his chief critic W.E. B. DuBois, and why Washington is still a vital force in understanding American and African History during the age of Jim Crow.
Ray Smock is the former Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, and director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University since 1992. He is a graduate of Roosevelt Univeristy in Chicago and holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland at College Park.
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Conference Co-Chairs
| Dr. Billy Joe Peyton |
Dr. Frehot Hailou |
Ms. Megan Sheets |
Mr. Richard Wolfe |
| Dr. Azam Bejou |
Ms. Joyce Chaney |
Mr. Matthew Carroll |
Dr. Suvayan De |
Conference Chair
Dr. David Bejou (Dean, College of Business and Social Sciences)
Monday, March 30, 2015
West Virginia State to co-host human rights conference
INSTITUTE, W.Va. (AP) — Human rights is the focus of a conference this week at West Virginia State University.
The second annual Conference on International Human Rights will be held Thursday and Friday at the Erickson Alumni Center on the university’s campus in Institute.
Topics include social justice, violence against women and children, elder abuse and human trafficking.
The College of Business and Social Sciences and the National Center for Human Relations will co-host the conference.