"Some of these materials can be hard to view, especially watching violence repeatedly to verify the material, and we don't want anyone experiencing secondary trauma," she said, adding that the class offers a "tailored seminar, research experience, and attention you can't get at a larger institution." Independent work will complement weekly lab sessions in the Digital Scholars Commons of McHenry Library, and a weekly seminar will bring the whole group together for "face time," as well as what Falcón calls "resiliency exercises." Each undergraduate manager has also been paired with an undergrad from the UCB lab. #CA FIRES NEWSTREAM HOW TO#Falcón enrolled in a five-day training in open source investigations by Bellingcat, a leader in the field, and she and the students received two days of training at UC Berkeley from Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps.įalcón has thoughtfully designed a class framework that will foster teamwork and be responsive to the well-being of students: Three undergraduate managers will lead their teams, which are encouraged to brainstorm how to approach each case, or alleged violation of human rights. "Too many qualified undergrads" Sylvanna Falcón, a professor of Latin American and Latino studies and a human rights researcher, brought the lab to life with seed funding from the Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation.įalcón had intended to accept 10 undergraduates this year but was overwhelmed by the quality of applicants and enrolled 16 three graduate student researchers are providing support and serving as mentors to the undergrads. Students have expressed interest in probing allegations of human rights violations in U.S.-Mexico border detention facilities, she said, explaining that Google Earth, maps, and media reports can help investigators monitor and verify what's happening on the border. That " sister lab" is affiliated with Berkeley Law, while UCSC's lab will be aligned with the mission of the Research Center for the Americas, which Falcón directs. "There's a new stream of careers in journalism, law, and with advocacy organizations that need people trained in open source tools," said lab director Sylvanna Falcón, a professor of Latin American and Latino studies (LALS) and a human rights researcher.įalcón was inspired by a similar lab that opened at UC Berkeley three years ago. In recent years, the New York Times has established its own digital verification unit, Amnesty International has partnered with university-based teams to advance its mission, and the United Nations and the International Criminal Court have relied on open-source evidence for holding perpetrators accountable. The need to verify digital information gained attention this summer when images of fires burning in the Amazon rainforest went viral - and then high-profile celebrities and politicians were called out for tweeting and sharing misleading, outdated images. The new Human Rights Lab went live this fall with 16 undergraduates and three graduate students who have made a three-quarter commitment to mastering high-tech tools and investigating alleged human rights abuses. The emerging field of "digital verification," which is taking hold in newsrooms and nonprofits around the globe, is now taking root at UC Santa Cruz. That dramatic case from 2018 illustrates the impact digital investigators can have on allegations of human rights violations. When confronted by BBC News with the team's findings, the government of Cameroon arrested seven members of the military who are currently under investigation for the murder. That was all a team of investigators needed to dig in, using satellite imagery, tips, news reports, and determination to identify where the atrocity took place, when, and by whom. A disturbing video captured the murders of several women and young children in a remote African village, and yet the perpetrators were free.
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