Join the Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice for a celebration of the upcoming release of Concrete Utopia, the newest book by Wolfgang Kaleck, Sorensen Center Visiting Scholar and European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) Founder and General Secretary.

Register online for this special launch event!

Concrete Utopia conceptualizes the human rights project of the last two and a half centuries as a “backward-looking” endeavor, which, in order to advance, must return to the utopian roots of its foundational movement. Since their inception, human rights have moved forward by judging the ills of the present from a standpoint in the future where such ills might no longer exist–a fundamentally utopian gesture. This peculiar character of human rights makes them continually ripe for reinvention and for responding to changing world circumstances. The book traces how human rights have been reconceived at different points in time and sketches the way they may be re-envisioned for new struggles in the 21st century through feminist, decolonial, and ecological interventions. 

Special thanks to host Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice, currently displaying two exhibitions. “New Locality,” a posthumous exhibition of paintings by David Kareyan, features hexagonal paintings that use digital drawings, cutting, and pasting of various images and forms to craft a mesmerizing “new locality” that is simultaneously unfamiliar and evocative. Uchronie Fragments, a solo exhibition of photographs by Osheen Harruthoonyan, explores interlocking themes of memory, history, identity, and the elusive passage of time. Harruthoonyan’s artistic practice is marked by a multifaceted approach that weaves together elements of his cultural heritage and global influences.

The Sorensen Center’s “Justice Through Art” initiative brings new perspectives and depth to legal challenges and explores the transformative impact of art and law.