Human Rights 2026: Current Challenges & Strategies
Join the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights: Current Challenges & Stratiegies, 8a.m. -5p.m. on November 6–7, 2026, at the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law. This two-day conference brings together leading voices in human rights. This event will address urgent global challenges and innovative strategies for social justice through panels and presentations, along with networking opportunities for alumni, students, and the public to engage with renowned human rights experts and practitioners.
This conference offers a unique chance to learn from and connect with international changemakers, explore pressing human rights topics, and contribute to advancing global justice. Whether you’re a student, alumnus, practitioner, or member of the public, your voice is vital in shaping the future of human rights.
Special Presentation
Lemkin’s House
A special presentation of the play by playwright Catherine Filloux.
Terence C. “Terry” Coonan
Associate professor of criminology and executive director of the interdisciplinary Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University. He teaches human rights courses in FSU’s law, criminology, and film schools; directs a new undergraduate major in human rights; and litigates immigration-based human rights cases nationwide. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he was an Arthur Russell Morgan Fellow with the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights and managing editor of the Human Rights Quarterly. His work has included advocacy for torture survivors and the mothers of the disappeared in Latin America, service with the U.S. Department of Justice, and extensive human trafficking victim advocacy and judicial trainings throughout the United States.
Catherine Filloux
Award-winning French Algerian American playwright and librettist whose work has focused on human rights for decades. Her more than thirty plays and libretti have been produced in the United States and internationally, and are widely published and anthologized. She has traveled to conflict areas including Bosnia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Northern Ireland, Sudan, and South Sudan in connection with her work. She earned her French Baccalaureate in philosophy with honors in Toulon, France, and her MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Dramatic Writing. She is also featured in the documentary Acting Together on the World Stage.
Lauren Gray
Senior strategic communications consultant and VP of Communications and Public Affairs at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, a nearly fifty-year-old civil rights legal organization leading seven lawsuits against anti-LGBTQ Trump executive orders. She has nearly twenty years of experience and graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she worked on the editorial staff for the Human Rights Quarterly at the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights. Previously, she served as senior vice president at Edelman, advising CEOs and Fortune 500 companies on complex reputational and societal issues, including LGBTQ+ equality and major Supreme Court decisions. She also led Edelman’s work with UNFPA and presented at the 2024 United Nations Population Fund global leadership meeting in Kazakhstan.
Dina Francesca Haynes
Executive director of the Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights and research scholar at Yale Law School. A leading expert on migration, refugees, gender, and transitional justice, she has worked internationally with multiple UN agencies and served as head of the human rights department for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro. She founded her own nonprofit to address gaps in refugee protection and attacks on migrant and human rights defenders. She holds a BA from the University of Denver, a JD from the University of Cincinnati, where she was an Arthur Russell Morgan Fellow with the Urban Morgan Institute, and an LLM from Georgetown Law.
Paul Hoffman
Director of the Defending Democracy Clinic at the University of California Irvine School of Law and partner with Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes, LLP. His practice focuses on civil and human rights litigation. Hoffman is the former legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and former chair of the International Board of Amnesty International. He has argued several international human rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Sosa v. Alvarez Machain, and is set to argue Cisco Systems v. Doe before the Court on April 28, 2026. He is a graduate of the New York University School of Law.
Harold Hongju Koh
Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School and one of the leading U.S. authorities on international law, national security, and human rights. A member of the Yale faculty since 1985, he served as dean from 2004 to 2009 and as the 22nd Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State from 2009 to 2013, receiving the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award. He returned to that office as Senior Adviser in 2021. From 1998 to 2001, he served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He has authored or co-authored ten books and more than 200 articles and has litigated major international law cases in U.S. and international tribunals.
Erin Farrell Rosenberg
Senior legal and policy advisor for the Mukwege Foundation’s Red Line Initiative to end conflict-related sexual violence. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and has been a visiting scholar with the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights. She spent a decade working in international criminal law at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court, and has worked extensively with victims of atrocity crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and Mali. She has also served as senior advisor for the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Julie Leftwich
Founder and director of the International Peace and Security Initiative at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and professor of practice in UC’s School of Public and International Affairs. She is a recognized expert in human rights and women, peace, and security, with extensive experience implementing rights-based approaches to support peacebuilding and security efforts. She has led global programs, worked with and advised major international organizations, founded the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center, and taught at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Denver. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law and the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights.
Ryan Thoreson
Associate professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and deputy editor of the Human Rights Quarterly. Formerly a researcher in the LGBT Rights program at Human Rights Watch, he has taught human rights at Yale Law School and the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Transnational LGBT Activism: Working for Sexual Rights Worldwide and coeditor of The SAGE Handbook of Global Sexualities. He holds a JD from Yale Law School, a DPhil from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and an AB in government and studies of women, gender, and sexuality from Harvard University.