University of Connecticut |
Valerie J. Love Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
Valerie J. Love is the Curator for Human Rights and Alternative Press Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, and is also the library liaison to the Human Rights programs on campus. Please contact Valerie for further information about the Human Rights and Alternative Press Collections, or to request general orientation, course-related instruction, and focused research training. Group and individual training sessions are available by appointment. For group sessions, please contact the curator at least 2 weeks in advance. The Human Rights Collections at the University of Connecticut grew from the opening of the Dodd Center in 1995 and its focus on Senator Thomas J. Dodd’s work as Chief Trial Counsel at the Nuremberg Trials. One result of this focus was the Center’s invitation to assist the African National Congress in arranging and describing the records it created during apartheid in South Africa. The project resulted in a gift of ANC books and pamphlets to the Center, as well as microfilm collections of the papers of anti-apartheid activists A. B. Xuma and Oliver Tambo. Other important human rights collections added during the past decade include the records and library of the Human Rights Internet, the Impact Visuals Photographic Collection, and the Refugee Case Files of the International Rescue Committee. Additionally, the Alternative Press Collection contains a number of human rights publications and serials, including annual reports of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Please also see the University of Connecticut Libraries Human Rights Subject Guide. The Alternative Press Collection at the University of Connecticut was founded in the late 1960s out of student participation in activist movements for social, cultural, and political change. Today the collection includes thousands of national and international newspapers, serials, books, pamphlets, ephemera and artifacts documenting activist themes and organizations, spanning from the 1800s to the present. The bulk of the collection pertains to the Vietnam era. The collection contains more than 7000 newspaper and magazine titles with approximately 200 on subscription, 5000 books and pamphlets, 1800 files of ephemera from activist organizations throughout the country, plus miscellaneous posters, broadsides, buttons, calendars, and manuscripts. Alternative tabloids in the collection from the 1960s and early 1970s include Georgia Straight, The Berkeley Barb, and Great Speckled Bird. Contemporary peace movements regarding the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as materials pertaining to contemporary unrest in the Middle East, Central America, and Africa are also included in the collection. An additional strength of the collection are liberation and civil rights movements, including a significant number of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender materials and queer liberation publications. The collection also documents early feminist publications such as Off Our Backs, and contains materials pertaining to non-white racial and ethnic identities and power movements, including the Oakland-based Black Panther newspaper as well as flyers and ephemeral materials from demonstrations during the trial of Black Panther Bobby Seale. Asian, Latino, Native American, and interracial publications are all represented in the collection, as well as materials from publications and organizations campaigning for the rights of children, the elderly, and people with physical and mental challenges. The collection also includes a wide array of radical political materials, including approximately 3000 United States books and pamphlets on Socialism and Communism, as well as anarchist materials and publications from the radical right. Additionally, the Alternative Press Collection includes notable manuscript collections, including the Hoffman Family Papers, donated in 2000 by Jack Hoffman, the younger brother of activist Abbie Hoffman, the co-founder of the Yippie movement and co-defendant in the Chicago 7 Trial. Other manuscript materials in the Alternative Press Collection include the Meyer Collection of Fat Liberation, the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union Records, and the Connecticut Citizens Action Group Records. Contact InformationValerie Love This page is maintained by V. Love. |
