UConn Hosting International Conference on Understanding Hate Crimes

STORRS, CT - The University of Connecticut is hosting a two-day international conference on understanding hate crimes next week.

The conference is slated for Monday- though Wednesday, July 11 through 13 at the Information Technologies Engineering Building, 371 Fairfield Way, Room 336.

UConn officials said that, according to the FBI, in 2014 U.S. law enforcement agencies reported 5,479 hate crime incidents, with 47 percent racially motivated, 18.6 percent from sexual-orientation bias and 18.6 percent from religious bias.

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A report this week by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in the United Kingdom says more than 3,000 hate crimes and incidents were reported to police in late June of this year before and after the vote to exit the European Union, a 42 percent increase over the same time period in 2015.

Researchers from seven nations with expertise in areas such as human rights, sociology, hate crimes and trauma survival are scheduled to be at the conference, including:

• Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith, psychologist who works with trauma survivors, City College of New York
• Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, researcher on LGBT assault hate crime, Columbia University
• Shareen Hertel, political scientist and authority on transnational human rights advocacy, UConn
• Viera Pejchal, specialist in the exercise of free speech, University of Geneva
• Barbara Perry, international authority on hate crimes, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
• Mark Walters, specialist in hate crime and restorative justice, University of Sussex
• Richard Wilson, law professor and specialist on human rights and war crime tribunals, UConn

The conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, UConn officials said..

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