The event kicks off the two-day symposium, cosponsored by SMU and the Division of Cinema-Television in Meadows School of the Arts. Symposium panels are scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 7 in the Meadows Museum and will focus on how the media impacts human rights in America. Themed sessions will explore justice in journalism; new media and human rights; media and the death penalty; and media, race, ethics and justice.
Rick Halperin, director of SMU’s Human Rights Education Program, will serve as keynote speaker during a luncheon April 7. Halperin is a former chair of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA.
Regional and national leaders participating in the symposium include:
- Joe Domanick, John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Center on Media, Crime and Justice and USC Annenberg’s Institute for Justice and Journalism
- Lee Harrington, Miami University of Ohio
- David J. Harris, Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute on Race and Justice
- Charles Nesson, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society
- Andrea Lyon, DePaul University School of Law, and author of Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer
- Craig Watkins, Dallas County’s first African American district attorney, who has participated in exonerations based on DNA
- Danny Schecter, founder of MediaChannel.org
SMU participants and moderators include Meadows Dean José Antonio Bowen; Craig Flournoy, Division of Journalism, Sean Griffin, Derek Kompare and Rachel Lyon, Division of Cinema-TV; Mark McPhail, Division of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs; and Tom Mayo, Dedman School of Law.
The symposium is free and open to the public. Reservations are required for all events and can be made through the SMU Cinema-Television Division, 214-768-2129.
