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