Behind the Headlines | Humanitarianism in Crisis?

Recorded December 11, 2024. As humanitarian crises play out across
our devices and screens, our latest ‘Behind the Headlines’ panel
will explore the changing mandate for humanitarianism. Bringing
together world experts, including our academic partners at Boston
College, we ask: what is a humanitarian mission, and how has it
evolved in view of past and current global conflicts, climate
catastrophe, or the shifting terms of refugee and migrant rights?
And, what is the role and reach of the university in responding to
the challenge of restoring social trust in humanitarian
initiatives? Speakers and topics: Religious humanitarianism during
the World Wars Patrick J. Houlihan, Assistant Professor of
Twentieth-Century European History, TCD, will look to the past and
at the legacies of faith-based humanitarianism during the World
Wars, 1914-1945, to provide a lens through which to view modern
global humanitarianism. The moral crisis of equality law Shreya
Atrey, Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law,
University of Oxford and Visiting Fellow at the Trinity Long Room
Hub will ask why human rights lawyers can't seem to address rising
global inequality. Social Trust and the University James F. Keenan,
S.J., Vice Provost for Global Engagement & Canisius Professor,
Theology Department, Boston College. Erik Owens, Director,
International Studies Program; Professor of the Practice, Theology
Department, Boston College. In the face of criticisms that American
universities, once key structures instilling social trust, are now
too elite, Keenan and Owens will argue that the university has an
obligation to restore social trust, in part by ensuring that its
research and teaching cross disciplinary boundaries in the service
to the world’s pressing problems. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza
Carlo Aldrovandi, Assistant Professor in Religions, Conflict and
Peace Studies, TCD, will argue that humanitarian discourses and
practices are being instrumentalised to facilitate the functional
reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the permanent displacement of
its population. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub