In 2001, the University of Connecticut designated human rights as a university priority. This was the culmination of a flourishing of human rights activities at the University in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Dodd Research Center was founded in 1995, housing the Nuremberg archives of former Nuremberg Executive Counsel and Connecticut Senator, Thomas J. Since 2000, the University has hosted the M
arsha Lilien Gladstein Visiting Professor of Human Rights that brings leading human rights scholars to the University campus to teach and give a public lecture on central developments in the field. The Human Rights Institute was founded in 2003 by the Gladstein Professor of Human Rights, Richard A. Wilson in order to promote interdisciplinary research and teaching across the University. Since then nine joint faculty have been hired at the Institute to build the research profile of the Institute and to contribute to the growing undergraduate major and minor, and graduate certificate in human rights. In 2001, a human rights minor was established at the University and currently enrolls approximately 40 minors, making it one of the largest human rights minors in the country. On the basis of the success of the human rights minor, a human rights major was launched in 2012. The human rights undergraduate major now has over 150 students earning degrees in human rights and participating in internships across New England. The Institute has one of the largest human rights majors in the country.
