Surviving Mariupol: A Firsthand Account of the Russian Invasion in Ukraine

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Alina Beskronva, who is currently pursuing a Master's in Public Administration in International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. Alina is from the city of Mariupol in South-Eastern Ukraine and was in the city during the first few weeks of the Russian attack on Mariupol in 2022. During the siege, the Red Cross described the situation as “apocalyptic” and Ukrainian officials later reported that approximately 25,000 civilians had been killed, though the true number remains unknown, and that at least 95% of the city had been destroyed during the fighting, primarily by large-scale Russian bombardments. On today’s episode, Alina shares her first-hand account of living in Mariupol during the siege and her experience escaping the city that led to her current studies at Harvard.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Darcel Rockett,  senior journalist for the Chicago Tribune whose work centers on narratives for and about populations/communities who need to be heard. An avid documenter of the Black experience, she continually aims to shine a light on the many facets of race and culture. She is currently a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard where she is researching the impact of the Supreme Court’s reversal of affirmative action in higher education and the repercussions of the decision on the future of the Black middle class. In this conversation Darcell discusses the common threads she’s written about across her career, her reporting on the economic disparities in black communities as a result of housing, economic, and incarceration policies, her current examination of the effects of the reversal of affirmative action, the current attack on DEI policies and the historical context of these actions, and why she spends part of her reporting focusing on activists and artists who are doing work do build community in the face of hardship.

On this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Aminta Ossom speaks with Michael Posner, Professor of Ethics and Finance at the Stern School of Business at NYU and director for the Center for Business and Human Rights. He served in the Obama administration from 2009-2013 as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor, and from 1978-2009 Posner led Human Rights First. On today’s episode they discuss a variety of topics surrounding Michael’s new book, “Conscience Incorporated: Pursuing Profits While Protecting Human Rights” including: why he chose to write the book, why he wanted to speak to business leaders at this moment in history, how corporations can pursue profits and social good, shifting from the idea of shareholder primacy to stakeholder primacy, corporate responsibility and the role of regulation in the current global political environment, the obstacles of governments in ensuring fairness and safety, and an insider look at negotiations between governments, companies, and human rights advocates.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Douglas Johnson, former director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy from 2013-2017 and Lecturer on Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. On the occasion of his retirement from the university he reflects on his work over a long career in human rights including: his multiple decades of work at the Minnesota-based Center for the Victims of Torture, his role in organizing the historic 1970’s grassroots boycott of Nestle with the Infant Formula Action Coalition, the impact of the boycott on informing the due diligence principles of business and human rights, and finally with his retirement from Harvard, Douglass shares some of his key insights that he sought to convey in his decades of teaching. 

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Kasha Nabagesera, Ugandan LGBTQ+ rights activist and Executive Director of Freedom & Roam Uganda (FARUG), about her decades of work. In today’s conversation, Mathias and Kasha discuss: Kasha’s origins as an activist standing up for LGBTQI+ rights, why Uganda is so hostile towards LGBTQI+ people, Bombastic magazine and Kasha’s other work in fighting for rights through digital and print media, Freedom & Roam Uganda’s current initiatives, the current legal situation for LGBTQI+ people in Uganda after the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, threats to her life and other gender rights activists in Uganda, and her international work.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Jean Pfaelzer, award-winning historian and Professor Emerita of English, Asian Studies, and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Delaware, about her 2023 book, California, A Slave State, which investigates California’s histories of enslavement. Together, they discuss: why California merits the designation as a slave state; the history of the 18th century Spanish missions and their brutal treatment of Indigenous people; the “slave rectangle” of Alaska, California, China, and Russia; the “California Genocide” of Indigenous peoples during the gold rush; the historical treatment of Chinese women in California; and why California currently has the largest number of human trafficking cases of any state in the United States. 

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates talks with Lina Chawaf, CEO of Radio Rozana and fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Radio Rozana was created in 2013 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring to examine the conflict in Syria with a focus on women’s voices for an audience of over 8 million listeners. Chawaf has a long career in journalism leading television and radio production companies in Syria, receiving the Freedom Press Award in 2018 from Reporters Without Border, and founding Radio Rozana in exile following threats to her life for refusing to broadcast the pro-authoritarian messaging of Bashar Al Assad’s government. On today’s episode Chawaf discusses: her background in TV and radio in Syria, her experience refusing to propagate government propaganda during the Arab Spring, the state of press freedom globally, Radio Rozana’s focus on women’s voices, how citizen journalism comes into play in high-conflict areas with authoritarian control, her perspective on the future of media freedom in the U.S., and finally, her insights into the recent changes going on in Syria following Assad’s ouster.

In this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Burmese human rights defender Wai Wai Nu and her colleague Hana Seita about their work in Myanmar. Wai Wai Nu spent seven years as a political prisoner in Myanmar and upon her release founded the Women’s Peace Network (WPN) and the Yangon Youth Center. Through WPN she advocates for justice, works to build peace and mutual understanding between Myanmar’s ethnic communities—including her own Rohingya community—and empowers marginalized women throughout Burma.Wai Wai has received many accolades over the last decade and has been named a Next Generation Leader by TIME, a World Economic Forum Young Global leader, and one of 100 top Women by BBC. Hana Seita is the research and advocacy coordinator at WPN and manages WPN’s human rights documentation, research, and international advocacy. Together they speak with Maggie about the work of WPN in Burma and abroad, their advocacy work in the U.S. Congress, the work of the Yangon Youth Center and their holistic vision of changing society, the Rohingya genocide, the current day-to-day life in Myanmar under the military rule, what future they see for Myanmar, and how those from abroad can take direct action to support their cause.You can learn more about WPN at: https://www.womenspeacenetwork.org/

In this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Tiffany Florvil, associate professor of history at the University of New Mexico and fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She is a 20th century cultural historian of Germany whose work focuses on Black Germans and their creation of new intellectual, cultural, and political practices. She is the author of Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement, which is at the center of this episode's conversation. Together, Mathias and Tiffany discuss: how she became interested in the African diaspora in Germany as an American scholar, Germany’s colonial history, the demographics of the current Black German community, the history of organizing in Black German communities, the role of Black women in these organizations, the influences of Audre Lorde and Angela Davis, the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement in Germany, and Tiffany’s work on Black German author May Ayim.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Diego Garcia Blum speaks with Kimberly Zieselman, an intersex woman, lawyer, and human rights advocate with over 25 years of experience in nonprofit leadership. Currently, she serves as a Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons at the U.S. State Department and is also a senior advisor for Global Intersex Rights for Outright international, an organization dedicated to working with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the LGBTQI+ human rights movement. In this conversation, Zieselman discusses what is distinct about intersex, her own journey to discover late in life that she is intersex, the history of medical treatments used against intersex people, bringing a human rights lens to intersex issues, and fighting the shame, stigma, and misunderstandings around intersex people.