Episode 77: Dr. Mary Elizabeth Curran

Episode 77: Dr. Mary Elizabeth Curran

Dr. Mary Elizabeth Curran is Professor of Language Education at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She directs the Office of Local-Global Partnerships and prepares future language education teachers and researchers. Her scholarship focuses on community-engaged language education, language teacher education, and global teacher education. She is the founder of the award-winning Conversation Tree: Community-Based Language Partnership Program and serves as co-editor of the Global Teacher Education book series published by Bloomsbury. Dr. Curran has championed multilingualism through her research, teaching, and community partnerships. Her work builds meaningful connections between universities and local communities while promoting language justice, cultural sustainability, and equitable educational opportunities for multilingual learners. Episode Summary In this episode of Human Rights Education Now!, Mary Curran discusses how her passion for language education became a commitment to multilingualism, community engagement, and human rights. She explains how learning additional languages fosters empathy, strengthens relationships across cultures, and helps create more inclusive communities. Drawing on her work at Rutgers University, she describes the development of the award-winning Conversation Tree program, which connects university students with multilingual community members through reciprocal language learning. The conversation explores language as a fundamental human right and examines the harmful effects of subtractive bilingualism, in which individuals lose their heritage language and, with it, important cultural, familial, and personal connections. Mary shares examples from long-standing exchange partnerships between Rutgers and communities in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, highlighting efforts to preserve the Mayan language while developing future Indigenous leaders. She also reflects on the importance of community partnerships, documentary storytelling, and local language preservation efforts. Mary addresses the impact of recent immigration policies on multilingual communities, emphasizing the need for schools and universities to protect immigrant families and expand access to education. She discusses New Jersey's Seal of Biliteracy, the importance of multilingual teacher preparation, and broader efforts to make language learning a societal priority. Drawing inspiration from Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa, Mary concludes by advocating for multilingualism as a human right and calling for professional preparation programs that equip educators and public servants to serve linguistically diverse communities. She closes by reinforcing the need to treat multilingualism as a shared responsibility and a human right. Topics discussed: * Origins of Mary Curran's work in language education and multilingualism * Language learning as a human right * The Conversation Tree community language partnership * Campus-community engagement through language learning * Subtractive bilingualism and language loss * Exchange partnerships with Mexico and preservation of the Mayan language * Immigration policy and supporting multilingual communities * New Jersey's Seal of Biliteracy * Global teacher education and transnational partnerships * Indigenous language preservation * Paulo Freire's influence on language education * Gloria Anzaldúa and language as identity * Multilingual teacher preparation and professional licensing Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE [https://docs.google.com/document/d/121qHSDg9d-eutC8YRx56HTB6TXU78E602OjklDjLkSo/edit?usp=sharing]. Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE [https://hreusa.org/human-rights-education-now-podcast/]. Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/ [https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/] This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/] Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]

Episode 76: Dr. Pedro Gonzalez

Dr. Pedro Gonzalez is a leading human rights advocate and Assistant Professor of Human Rights at Northern Arizona University. His expertise spans criminology, criminal justice, and comparative cultural studies. Pedro's doctoral work in Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas informs his teaching on the Holocaust, human rights, and Latin American and Mexican history. Pedro’s research centers on human rights, genocide, migration, memory, and state-sponsored violence in Latin America. He has held fellowships with Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy and Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, serves on the Faculty Advisory Council at Seven Generation Indigenous Knowledge Center, and received the 2025 Ed O’Brien Human Rights Education Award, recognized by Human Rights Educators USA. Episode Summary Dr. Pedro Gonzalez traces his commitment to human rights education to childhood experiences in Mexico City, where encounters with police repression, labor unrest, and stories of torture and disappearance left lasting impressions. He explains how his academic study and mentorship enabled him to connect these memories to broader frameworks of ethics, history, and advocacy, framing the episode around his journey from personal experience to professional engagement. The episode centers on how Latin American history, critical pedagogy, and ethics shape Pedro's approach as an educator and scholar. He discusses weaving human rights into his university courses by encouraging dialogue, empathy, and respect for human dignity. Highlighting his work on forced disappearances in Mexico, Pedro shares how he uses photography and public exhibits to preserve memory and resist erasure—connecting remembrance and activism to resistance against state violence, exemplified by his links to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Pedro addresses contemporary challenges in the United States and Mexico, focusing on migration, dehumanization, nationalism, and polarization, and their relevance to human rights education. He describes teaching migration and human rights through historical, political, and cultural perspectives, emphasizing migrants' lived experiences and structural causes of displacement. The episode concludes with reflections on hope, ethics, and responsibility, drawing from Emmanuel Levinas and underscoring memory and solidarity as central to advancing human rights education. Topics discussed: * Origins of Dr. Pedro Gonzalez’s work in human rights and human rights education * Childhood experiences with repression and violence in Mexico City * Latin American history, ethics, and human rights pedagogy * Integrating human rights into university teaching * Forced disappearances and photography as testimony * Memory, memorialization, and resistance to historical erasure * Cultural heritage and human rights * Migration, borders, and nationalism * Humanizing migrants through education * Dehumanization, polarization, and digital media * Emmanuel Levinas, ethics, and responsibility toward others * Hope, dignity, and solidarity in human rights work Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_oHALERPSuXVr8ZZ5JNBMZGZxP2VxTQutvd5AIEJSSM/edit?usp=sharing]. Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE [https://hreusa.org/human-rights-education-now-podcast/].   Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/ [https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/] This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/] Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]

Episode 75: Dr. Teresa M. Cappiali

Dr. Teresa M. Cappiali is an academic and international consultant. She founded NOIWE, a Sweden-based organization focused on transforming education using Transformative- Emancipatory Pedagogy (TEP). For 14 years+ and across five continents, she has developed this framework, combining knowledge, empathy, and critical thinking to create classrooms grounded in dialogue and collective transformation. Teresa holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Université de Montréal and has held positions at several major research institutes. She now works with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. Her work promotes inclusive and fair approaches to education worldwide. In this episode, Dr. Teresa M. Cappiali introduces Transformative-Emancipatory Pedagogy (TEP) as a framework for reimagining education as a tool for human rights, dignity, and social transformation. She traces her intellectual journey from traditional “banking” models of education to progressive and, ultimately, emancipatory approaches, drawing on the work of Paulo Freire and decolonial traditions. Cappiali highlights how TEP and human rights education focus on dignity, empathy, and responsibility. She discusses how Maria Montessori’s work shapes her ideas and stresses the need to connect with students’ real experiences to support their growth. TEP encourages critical thinking through respectful dialogue and tackling tough issues. The episode explores the use of TEP to promote inclusion and empower students, especially in migrant communities. Teresa explains the need to address controversy with a pedagogy of "discomfort" while keeping learning respectful and supportive. She ends by stressing hope, healing, and the integration of knowledge from many fields as key to global human rights education. [Full bio on HREUSA podcast website [https://hreusa.org/human-rights-education-now-podcast/]] Topics discussed: * Origins of Teresa Cappiali’s work in human rights education * Transformative-Emancipatory Pedagogy (TEP) and its foundations * From “banking education” to emancipatory education models * Humanistic values: dignity, empathy, and interconnectedness * Montessori’s influence on human rights education * Creating supportive, dialogic classroom environments * Cognitive dissonance and engaging controversial issues * Applying TEP to migration and social justice issues * Institutional change through student voice and participation * Pedagogy of discomfort and critical dialogue * Role models, hope, and interdisciplinary approaches to HRE Download podcast listing HERE [https://docs.google.com/document/d/10qIgJOr0uCKrZAg1g-Refv-kJcl2rEhjDXOdNcl0N14/edit?usp=sharing]. Listen on our HREUSA podcast website [https://hreusa.org/human-rights-education-now-podcast/]. Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/ [https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/] This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/] Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]

Episode 74: Mischa Geracoulis

Mischa Geracoulis is the Outreach and Engagement Officer at Project Censored and Production Lead at The Censored Press. She contributes to the State of the Free Press yearbook, serves as a Project Judge, and is the author of Media Framing and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage (Routledge, 2025). She is also a Global Press Freedom Expert and Index Respondent with Reporters Without Borders. Her work focuses on human rights, journalistic ethics, press freedom, and the preservation of cultural heritage. She holds an M.A. in Education and Media Studies and a B.A. in International Development, with a concentration in Southwest Asia and North Africa.  In this episode, Mischa examines how human rights, journalism, and the preservation of cultural heritage intersect, focusing on the legacy of the Armenian genocide. She discusses how cultural erasure and historical silences cause ongoing human rights violations and how journalism documents these histories to resist erasure. The conversation centers on cultural heritage as a human rights issue, focusing on Rafael Lemkin’s work and media narratives. Mischa’s discussion of “change-centered” journalism and the role of microhistories in amplifying marginalized voices links to Edward Said’s Orientalism and critiques of media and power. Mischa describes her work with Project Censored, focusing on promoting critical media literacy and defending freedom of expression under Articles 19 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The episode centers on contemporary censorship, particularly political pressures on academic and journalistic freedom, and how media institutions shape or suppress truth. The discussion concludes with a global perspective on the destruction of cultural heritage (the case of Nagorno-Karabakh) and a call for educators to integrate critical media literacy and cultural heritage into human rights education. Mischa emphasizes empowering people to critically analyze media and identify whose voices are included/excluded is essential to advancing human rights today. Topics discussed: · Origins of Mischa Geracoulis’ work in human rights and journalism · Armenian genocide and cultural erasure · Journalism’s role in documenting human rights abuses · Cultural heritage as a human rights issue · Microhistories and change-centered journalism · Edward Said’s Orientalism and media analysis · Project Censored and media accountability · Critical media literacy in human rights education · Censorship, propaganda, and academic freedom · Cultural destruction in Nagorno-Karabakh · Educators’ role in preserving cultural heritage Download full topic listing [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZpDcCBPlL-e1FCSxU9vXZZDVEpAfcclFgzBOQoPPow8/edit?usp=drive_link]. Listen at HREUSA podcast website [https://hreusa.org/human-rights-education-now-podcast/]. Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/ [https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/] This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/] Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]

Episode 73: Jane Williams

Professor Emeritus Jane Williams has built a distinguished career spanning legal practice, government legal service, academia, and civil society activism. She played a pivotal role in securing legislation on the rights of the child in Wales and was instrumental in the campaign for a Welsh Youth Parliament. At Swansea University, she co-founded the Observatory on Human Rights of Children (now the Observatory on Human Rights and Social Justice) and the Children’s Legal Centre Wales. Her scholarship and advocacy focus on devolution, child law, and children’s rights. She's pioneered pedagogical innovations, including trans-Atlantic Street Law collaborations and human rights–based research with children. In Episode 73 of Human Rights Education Now!, Jane Williams reflects on the roots of her commitment to children’s rights, shaped by witnessing the impact of poverty on children’s lives and by her legal training. She discusses the challenges of advancing children’s rights within the legal profession and the transformative influence of the UK Human Rights Act. A core focus of the conversation is the development of Wales’ Children’s Parliament and the Children’s and People’s Assembly of Wales, created in the context of devolution and informed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Jane explains how these initiatives demonstrate the practical integration of children’s participation rights into democratic structures. She describes the founding of the Observatory on Human Rights and Social Justice and the Children’s Legal Centre Wales, institutions dedicated to research, accountability, policy advocacy, curriculum reform, and embedding children’s rights into formal systems. Drawing on figures like Eglantyne Jebb and Janusz Korczak, Jane calls for abolishing the minimum voting age so governments must treat children as political actors. Read full episode description HERE [https://hreusa.org/human-rights-education-now-podcast/]. Topics discussed: * Origins of Jane Williams’ work in children’s rights * Impact of poverty on children’s lives * Law as a pathway to children’s rights advocacy * Wales’ devolution and the creation of the Children’s Parliament * The role of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Welsh reform * Integrating children’s rights into institutions and legal practice * Curriculum reform in Wales and human rights education * Nationalism, migrant children, and decolonizing legal education * Historical role models in children’s rights * Abolishing the minimum voting age as a strategy for advancing children’s rights Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZyQquUtF8Qawl0SDWvpEw9dtSJuqPbY3ku6e4Rou-M/edit?usp=sharing]. Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE [https://hreusa.org/human-rights-education-now-podcast/].  Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/ [https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/] This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/] Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]