Engaging critical human rights studies from an interdisciplinary arts and humanities perspective, Human Rights on the Move addresses a range of human rights violations in contemporary society, including the carceral systems that prevent movement, the gendered and racial restrictions placed on movement, the lack of access that assures movement only for those who have the ability to move, and the histories of movements such as settler colonialism. The approaches to human rights in this wide-ranging collection are also “on the move,” emphasizing a nimble, cross-disciplinary approach that considers the intersection of politics, culture, and the arts. 

Contributing artists, activists, and scholars expose the fundamental paradox of human rights (namely that nation-states are violators and guarantors of rights) while also showing how people facing violence and persecution move with the hope of more livable and equitable futures. The assembled scholarly essays, interviews, and creative pieces demonstrate the importance of a more relational and contextual understanding of human rights—one that can destabilize current definitions and open space for new formulations. 

Contributors: 
nora chipaumire, Víctor M. Espinosa, Bridget M. Haas, Wendy S. Hesford, Sona Kazemi, Wendy Kozol, Guisela LaTorre, Rachel Lewis, Faustin Linyekula, Paloma Martinez-Cruz, Tiyi M. Morris, Momar K. Ndiaye, Eleanor Paynter, Cristian Pineda, Elaine Richardson, Amy Shuman, Jennifer Suchland, Mary E. Thomas, Shui-yin Sharon Yam 

Wendy S. Hesford is Professor, Ohio Eminent Scholar, and Faculty Director of the Global Arts + Humanities Theme at The Ohio State University. Her books include Violent Exceptions: Children’s Human Rights and Humanitarian Rhetorics, Spectacular Rhetorics: Human Rights Visions, Recognitions, Feminisms, and many others.

Momar K. Ndiaye is Assistant Professor of Dance at The Ohio State University. An artist, educator, and researcher, Ndiaye makes work that directly addresses the existential conditions of Africans in a world of globalization. His activism-driven pieces include “Toxu: Between Dreams and Realities,” “Me and My Space,” and “Genesis,” among many others that have been shown at major festivals in Europe, Africa, and America.

Amy Shuman is Professor Emerita at The Ohio State University. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of Other People’s Stories: Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy, coeditor of Technologies of Suspicion and the Ethics of Obligation in Political Asylum, and author and editor of several other books.

Introduction    Reckoning with Human Rights Incommensurability

Chapter 1        On the Move: Human Rights and Humanitarian Violence

Chapter 2        Migration Imaginaries: Wreckage, Ruination, and Recovery

Interlude 1      Choreographing Mobility and Human Rights

A Conversation with Momar Ndiaye, Eleanor Paynter, and Amy Shuman

Chapter 3        Contemporary Art Practices and the Human Right to Global Mobility

Interlude 2      Human Rights and the Fragility of Staying Alive

A Conversation with Faustin Linyekula and Momar Ndiaye

Chapter 4        Border Embodiments and Ethical Arts Practices

Interlude 3      Decentering Human Rights toward an African Ideology

A Conversation with nora chipaumire and Momar Ndiaye

Chapter 5        Disposable, Exploitable, and Essential: Transnational Domestic Labor in Hong Kong

Interlude 4      Black Womxn, Black Girls, Corona, and the Pandemix—A One-Woman Show

A Performance by Elaine Richardson

Chapter 6        Countering Carceral Logics with Black Feminist Pedagogies

Interlude 5      Dislocated Selves, Incarcerated Rights

A Testimonial by Sona Kazemi

Chapter 7        Transforming Subjectivity through Testimony

Chapter 8        Street Cats: Human-Animal Interdependencies in Times of Ecological Crisis

Chapter 9        María Sabina as Vanishing Indian: Writing Mazatec Culture Out of Mushroom Medicine

Epilogue          Human Rights in Transit: A Reflection