Arts Forum: Torture and Representation October 25, 2008

Artist Daniel Heyman, Professor Julie Mertus, and attorney Katherine Gallagher will explore the issues of artistic and legal representations of victims of torture in a panel discussion moderated by Sarah Anderson. This event is sponsored by Foreign Policy In Focus and Provisions Library and is connected to an exhibit called "Close Encounters: Facing the Future," also at the Katzen Center, which runs through October 26.

* Daniel Heyman is a painter and printmaker from Philadelphia who has been capturing the images and words of Iraqi victims of torture from U.S. facilities like Abu Ghraib. In these works, now on display in “Close Encounters,” Heyman’s spare and expressive portraits are haloed by words from the victims’ own harrowing narratives. More of his work may be viewed at his website [http://www.danielheyman.com/].

* Julie Mertus is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the MA program in Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs at American University. Her work focuses on human rights, U.S. foreign policy, refugee and humanitarian law and policy, gender and conflict, and post-war transitions, with a specialty on the former Yugoslavia. Professor Mertus has nearly twenty years experience in the human rights field, as a field researcher, lawyer, advocate, political analyst and trainer.

* Katherine Gallagher is a Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), where she focuses on holding individuals, including US and foreign government officials, and corporations, including private military contractors, accountable for serious human rights violations. Prior to joining CCR, she worked at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia from 2001-2006.

* Moderator and IPS Global Economy Project Director Sarah Anderson has written numerous studies, articles and books on global corporations and the social and environmental impacts of trade and investment liberalization.

This event is free and open to the public.

Official Website: http://www.ips-dc.org/events/764