Human Rights

Endowed Elberg Lecture Series: Howard French in Conversation With Adam Hochschild

February 17, 2026

March 16, 2026 | 1230 - 2 PM | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall
(*NOTE: Stephens Hall is next door to the IIS office in Philosophy Hall)

IIS is delighted to welcome the renowned author, journalist and professor Howard French on March 16 in conversation with journalist and UC Berkeley lecturer Adam Hochschild.

Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and a former New York Times bureau chief for Central America and the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, Japan and the Koreas, and China, based in Shanghai. The author of six books,...

Rupture: The U.S. and the Fate of World Order Speaker Series - Rupture #1: Democracy & Human Rights

February 17, 2026

February 25, 2026 | 12:30 - 2 pm (lunch talk) | 223 Philosophy Hall

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IIS Spring 2026 Speaker Series: The U.S. and the Fate of World Order

Rupture #1: Democracy and Human Rights

For decades the US’s role in the world has been grounded in democratic values as well as often contradictory economic and security interests that have contributed to both global...

Announcing the Spring 2026 IIS Speaker Series - Rupture: The U.S. and the Fate of World Order

February 17, 2026

IIS Spring 2026 Speaker Series

Register for Rupture 1: Democracy & Human Rights
Register for Rupture 2: Security
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So You Want to Change the World: Building an Activist Career Amidst Disruption and Opportunity

February 21, 2025
Bennett Freeman

So You Want to Change the World: Building an Activist Career Amidst Disruption and Opportunity

Bennett Freeman

Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

February 21, 2025

Thanks to Tom Laqueur for that generous introduction. Tom was a young Assistant Professor of History whose honors historiography seminar inspired me as...

Natan Sharansky: Science, Faith, and Survival

Natan Sharansky
1999

UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler welcomes Natan Sharansky, a minister in the Israeli government and a leading figure in the human rights movement in the Soviet Union during the last stages of the Cold War. They discuss how he survived imprisonment in the Gulag, the role of human rights in bringing on the demise of communism, and the implications of the global human rights struggle for the search for peace in the Middle East.

KEYWORDS: Soviet Union, Russia, Political Activism.

Mark Danner: The Red Cross Report, the Torture Memos, and Political Accountability

Mark Danner
2009

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes writer Mark Danner for a discussion of his articles in the New York Review of Book on the torture policies of the Bush Administration. The conversation addresses these topics: how interrogation turned to torture in response to the 911 attacks, the mind set of Cheney and Rumsfeld, the impact of the Church Committee reforms, the political dimensions of uncovering scandal in an empire that is also democracy, the implications of torture for American identity, and the politics and necessity of establishing accountability.

KEYWORDS...

Mark Danner: Truth, Power, and the Iraq Debacle

Mark Danner
2007

Conversations Host Harry Kreisler welcomes writer Mark Danner for a discussion of the Iraq War and foreign policy in the Bush administration. Informed by history, Danner's analysis includes comparison of Bush and Reagan, draws attention to change in U.S. policy on torture, and examines the options for future U.S. policymakers.

KEYWORDS: Iraq, Torture.

Mark Danner: Being a Writer

Mark Danner
1999

Welcome to a Conversation with History. I am Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is Mark Danner, a staff writer for the New Yorker specializing in foreign affairs. He has worked on the staff of the New York Review of Books, as senior editor of Harper's Magazine, as foreign affairs editor of The New York Times Magazine. He has co-written and co-produced two hour-long, award-winning documentaries for ABC News Peter Jennings Report. Mark is a frequent contributor to major magazines and is a frequent guest on news analysis television programs. He is...

Leon Wieseltier: Intellectual Odyssey

Leon Wieseltier
2012

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor of the New Republic. Focusing on Wieseltier's intellectual odyssey, the conversation includes discussion of his background, his education and mentors, Jewish identity in America, the political debate in Israel, his decision to write Kaddish, the attributes of intellectuals, the defining features of liberal sensibility, the challenge of reconciling theory and practice, the argument for humanitarian intervention, the meaning of the Arab Spring, and the challenges facing culture in America today.

KEYWORDS...

William Haglund: Voices from the Grave

William Haglund
2000

Forensic Scientist William Haglund joins host Harry Kreisler for a discussion of how his work as a coroner in murder investigations led to his involvement in the use of forensic science in human rights investigation in Bosnia, Central America and Nigeria.

KEYWORDS: Forensic Science, Anthropologists.