The Dodd Center for Human Rights at the University of Connecticut will be hosting a three-day summit from Wednesday, Oct. 22 to Friday, Oct. 24 that will explore the connections between sports and human rights.
James Waller, the Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice, appeared on the “UConn 360: The UConn Podcast” in late August to discuss the event.
“The idea behind all of these panels is to start important conversations,” said Waller. “We want to look at the relationship between sport and human rights in each of these areas. Where has that relationship caused harm? Where can we find hope for change? Where is transformation possible?”
The event will kick off Wednesday at 4 p.m. with an opening keynote conversation with Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Student Union Theatre. Smith and Carlos are best known for their 1968 Olympic Games Black Power salute while standing on the podium after coming in first and third in the 200m dash, respectively. The conversation will be moderated by ESPN columnist William C. Rhoden. Waller said that he first found out about their story while doing a project about them in high school.
“I was struck by something Tommie Smith said at the time,” said Waller in the podcast. “He explained that, yes, it was a protest for the rights of Black people in the United States and around the world. But he also saw it as a protest for human rights more broadly.
That statement really stayed with me.”
Pablo Torre, the host of “Pablo Torre Finds Out” for Meadowlark Media, will be Thursday’s first presenter and the summit’s second keynote speaker. The talk will begin at 9:15 a.m. in the Konover Auditorium inside the Dodd Center. Waller will be the moderator. Other panels taking place on Thursday include discussions about gender and politics in sports, as well as a breakout conversation with Schuyler Bailar, the first documented transgender Division I athlete to compete in a male sport.
Friday’s keynote speaker will be Danelle Umstead, a world champion downhill skier and U.S Paralympic team member. Her conversation will be about disabilities in sports and will be in commemoration of Elias “Eli” Abarbanel-Wolf, a former instructor at UConn’s Neag School of Education and member of two Paralympic soccer teams who was “a fierce and powerful disability sport advocate,” according to the Dodd Center website. He passed away in early 2023.
The summit’s last panel, “Sport and Human Rights Close to Home: UConn’s Legacy,” will bring back five former UConn athletes to talk about their experiences playing college sports in relation to human rights and how sports both “challenge and reinforce systems of inequality,” according to the Dodd Center website.
Former UConn athletes that will be on the panel include 1994 Big East men’s basketball Rookie of the Year Doron Sheffer and Harrison Brooks Fitch Jr., the son of Huskies of Honor inductee Harrison Fitch. Fitch Jr.’s father, the first black player in UConn basketball history, faced multiple incidents of racial discrimination while playing for UConn, including the US Coast Guard Academy refusing to let him play on their court in 1934, according to an article by Jaclyn Severance from UConn Today. The panel will be moderated by Kyle Muncy, the Director of Brand Partnerships and Trademark Management for UConn Athletics, and will begin at 1 p.m. in the Konover Auditorium.
The event is open to all, with Waller saying that both high school and college classes are expected to be in attendance. According to the Dodd Center website, a continental breakfast will be served from 8 to 9 a.m. on both Thursday and Friday, and there will be lunch and brief networking sessions at various times on both days. Early registration closed on Monday afternoon, but those who didn’t register are welcome to attend with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.