Seminars and Symposia
The Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, in
collaboration with The Human Rights Seminar Series, The CUNY Ph.D./M.A.
Program in Political Science, The Center for International Human Rights,
John Jay College, Global Studies Collective Network
Human Rights Series
Panel Discussion
Transitional Justice in the
Americas
Transitional Justice refers to the pursuit of accountability for past
massive and/or systematic violations of internationally recognized human
rights. The pursuit of transitional justice entails both judicial and
non-judicial means that include prosecutions of perpetrators, documentation
of atrocities through truth and reconciliation commissions, and the
provision of reparation to victims. This panel discussion will identify
some of the key issues pertaining to transitional justice in Latin America.
The papers discussed examine the arguments for and against transitional
justice and evaluate the merits of specific options in light of the
overall goals of peace and reconciliation.
MODERATOR
- Margaret Crahan
Dorothy Epstein Distinguished Professor of History
Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
PANELISTS
- Catalina Diaz
Program Associate, International Center for Transitional Justice
- Marifeli Pérez-Stable
Vice President, Inter-American Dialogue and Florida International
University
- Peter Winn
Professor of History, Tufts UniversitY
DISCUSSANT
- Katherine Hite
Associate Professor of Political Science, Vassar College
About the panelists:
Margaret Crahan
Dorothy Epstein Distinguished Professor of Latin American
History
Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
She received her doctorate from Columbia University where she is a Senior
Research Associate at the Institute of Latin American Studies. From
1982-1994 she was the Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Power and
Political Process at Occidental College and from 1993-1994 the Marous
Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition she has taught
at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies,
Columbia University, Occidental College, St. Peter’s College,
and the United Nations. She currently is a member of the Board of Trustees
of St. Edward’s University, the Interamerican Institute of Human
Rights, and ForCHILDREN, Inc. Dr. Crahan has done research and been
a member of international missions throughout the world. Her research
has entailed topics spanning the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries
in Latin American. She has authored/coauthored/ edited/coedited over
one hundred articles and books including Africa and the Caribbean: Legacies
of a Link; Human Rights and Basic Needs in the Americas; The City and
the World: New York’s Global Future; Religion, Culture and Society:
The Case of Cuba, and The Wars on Terrrorism and Iraq: Human Rights,
Unilateralism, and US Foreign Policy . She has served on the Executive
Councils of the Latin American Studies Association and the Pacific Coast
Council of Latin American Studies, as well as on the Kellogg Institute
of the University of Notre Dame, and the Council for International Exchange
of Scholars (Fulbright Program).
Catalina Diaz
Program Associate Fellow
International Center for Transitional Justice
Diaz is a Colombian Lawyer with an LLM from New York University, where
she was the recipient of a Global Public Service Law Scholarship. Sponsored
by NYU’s Global Public Service Law Project and based at ICTJ,
Catalina conducted comparative research on reparations for victims in
contexts of massive violations of human rights, before joining ICTJ
as a Program Associate Fellow. Her previous experience includes 3 years
at the Colombian Commission of Jurists in Bogota (Colombia). For the
CCJ, she led a consultative process for Colombian human rights NGOs
on human rights conditions tied to US military aid, and advised rural
Afro-Colombian communities on humanitarian law matters. She has also
worked as a law clerk at the Constitutional Court of Colombia
Marifeli Pérez-Stable
Vice President of Inter-American Dialogue
Florida International University
Pérez-Stable is vice president for democratic governance at the
Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC; presently she is on leave
of absence from Miami’s Florida International University where
she is a professor of Sociology and Anthropology. She is author of The
Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy (Oxford University Press,
1993; 2nd edition 1999) and editor of Looking Forward: Cuba’s
Pending Transition in Comparative Perspective (forthcoming, University
of Notre Dame Press) and is working on a short political biography of
Fidel Castro (Polity Press). In 2003 she was a fellow at Notre Dame’s
Kellogg Institute for International Relations and in 2001 she was a
Fulbright Fellow at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset in Madrid.
Peter Winn
Professor of History
Tufts University
Peter Winn received his PhD from Cambridge University in 1972. He has
held teaching positions at Tufts and Princeton University as well as,
Visiting Lecturer positions at Columbia University, the University of
the Republic (Montevideo, Uraguay), Yale University, and Wellesley College.
In addition to his distinguished teaching career, Dr. Winn has been
involved with the Latin American Studies Association, the Roosevelt
Center for American Policy Studies, OXFAM-America, and the Ibero-American
Book Prize Committee. He has consulted with the Social Science Research
Council, The Brooklyn Museum, The Ford Foundation, The History Book
Club, and WGBH Educational Foundation, in addition to serving as the
senior editor of the International Labor and Working Class History.
Much of his research has focused the Contemporary History of Chile including
issues of political economy, labor movements, and democratic transition.
Select Publications include: Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers
and Chile's Road to Socialism, Americas: The Changing Face of Latin
America and the Caribbean, Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and
Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973-2000, Inglaterra y la tierra
purpúrea, vol. 1. A la búsqueda del imperio económico,
1806-1880. Montevideo: Universidad de la República, 1998.
Katherine Hite
Associate Professor of Political Science
Vassar College
Katherine Hite is an associate professor of political science at Vassar
College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She is the author of When the Romance Ended:
Leaders of the Chilean Left, 1968-1998 (Columbia University Press, 2000)
and coeditor of Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America
and Southern Europe (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004). Her current
research is on political elites and traumatic political memories, focusing
on the politics of commemoration.
When: Thursday, Dec. 1, 4-6 PM
Where: Skylight Conference, Room 9100
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (@34th St.)
New York, NY
Space is limited. To reserve, send e-mail to bildner@gc.cuny.edu
