NEW PUBLICATION: The Trump Effect, Children and the Value of Human Rights Education

Abstract:

Since launching his presidential campaign, Donald Trump's rhetoric has often been divisive as well as demeaning of selected groups. This article examines the impact of Trump's rhetoric on children and their communities and explores the role that human rights education can play in responding to Trump and forging broader support for human rights. The article reviews the research on human rights education and considers how human rights education can be embedded in broader efforts to educate children. Using children's literature as a case study, the article argues for the importance of mainstreaming human rights education and meeting children where they are, in order to foster greater recognition of and respect for the rights of all individuals.

Full citation and link to article: Jonathan Todres, "The Trump Effect, Children, and the Value of Human Rights Education," Family Court Review, 56(2): 331-343 (2018).

A draft of the chapter is also available on SSRN.

Children's Rights at Leiden Law School

I am honored to have been invited to give two talks at Leiden Law School in the Netherlands on March 22-23, 2018. I had the opportunity to share my research on human rights in children's literature with children's rights faculty, staff, and students, and then present on child trafficking to human rights students.  In short, Leiden Law School is a wonderfully engaged and dynamic place. The faculty, staff, and students working on children's rights issues (and other human rights issues) were the perfect hosts. My sincere thanks to the entire community. I hope I can visit again soon.

For more on Leiden's children's rights program, click here.

p.s. The city of Leiden is wonderful too!

Fulbright in Ireland

I'm delighted to have received a Fulbright to conduct research and teach at University College Cork School of Law in Ireland for the Spring 2018 semester. I will be conducting research on human rights education for children, focusing on rights discourses in children’s literature and other spaces children inhabit. I also will be co-teaching an International Children's Rights course with Dean Ursula Kilkelly. 

I will post updates from time to time. In the meantime, here's a glimpse of the beautiful campus.

Share My Lesson profile

I'm honored to have been profiled on the Share My Lesson website for my work on human rights in children's literature. 

See below for an excerpt and link to the full profile:

We are certain that being English language arts teachers has helped illuminate how much a kindred spirit Jonathan Todres has become to us. However, being a teacher is not a requirement when considering the importance of his work and all of the possible applications in and out of any content-area classroom. Read on to find out how literature and the imagination have grown central to Todres’ work with children’s rights and beyond....

To continue reading, click here.

Interview on WABE, Atlanta's NPR Station

I was delighted to be a guest today on City Lights with Lois Reitzes, on Atlanta's NPR Station. We had a wonderful conversation about my new book, Human Rights in Children's Literature: Imagination and the Narrative of Law (Oxford University Press 2016).

To access the podcast, visit: GSU Professor Explores How Children’s Books Teach Human Rights.

To learn more about the book project and to share your ideas, click here.  

Exploring Human Rights in Children's Literature at Emory Law

Yesterday (Sept 1, 2016), I was delighted to visit Emory Law and meet with students in Professor Barbara Woodhouse's children's rights seminar and to discuss Human Rights in Children's Literature. Prof. Woodhouse assigned our new book for this semester. We had a wonderful conversation about human rights in children's literature, human rights education, child participation, and many other critical issues.  My thanks to the students for engaging the project so thoughtfully and to Prof. Woodhouse for the invitation and more generally for her wonderful work on children's rights.

Life, Liberty, and Literature: Our Q&A with Law Professor Jonathan Todres

Honored to have been interviewed recently by NewsWhistle about our new book, Human Rights in Children's Literature, and other topics.

Click here for a link to the interview.

Children's Books: The Key to Building a Human Rights Culture

Risa Kaufman, Columbia Human Rights Institute reviews Human Rights in Children's Literature: Imagination and the Narrative of Law by Jonathan Todres & Sarah Higinbotham (Oxford University Press 2016).

"For those working to bring human rights home, the book offers important and unique insights on the role that children’s literature can play in shaping a culture of human rights, near and far."

The full review is available on Human Rights at Home blog.

Building a Culture of Human Rights

Abstract:

How can we build a rights-respecting culture? .... Law is necessary; its mandate can influence and shape behaviors and attitudes. But it isn’t sufficient, in part because law often operates at a distance from the lives of most people, including the most vulnerable and marginalized.....Until human rights education becomes universal, a source much closer to home offers a vibrant set of materials that explore human rights and can help build a rights-respecting environment: children’s literature. Many of the stories children read and have read to them explore and confront important themes about children’s rights and their responsibilities to respect the rights of others. And they do this in a safe, imaginative world that is accessible to children

See more at: OUPblog.