Fall 2012 IHRE course schedule

Human Rights:  Perspectives from the Disciplines

Drawing on the South African experience, among others, this course introduces significant materials on human rights, discusses different disciplinary perspectives within the field, and considers issues of apartheid and transitional justice as a lens through which to explore issues of human rights.  This is a required course.   (4 credits)

Sample Course Syllabus

Engagement in Human Rights

The core seminar examines the theory and practice of human rights advocacy.  It is supplemented by an internship of approximately 10-12 hours per week at a human rights organization in Johannesburg.  (4 credits)

Sample Course Syllabus

Additional Information on IHRE Internships

Development, Welfare Economics, and Human Rights

This course covers emerging trends in inequalities of growth and development among countries as well as individuals.  Areas of development and welfare economics are explored in the broader context of human rights.  (2 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus

Gender and Human Rights

This course includes a broad overview of the movements toward gender equity from the early 20th century to the present, and of gender and rights in the political, economic, and socio-cultural spheres.  (4 credits)

This elective is next offered in the Spring 2013 semester.

Sample Course Syllabus

Human Rights and African Literature

This course explores traditional African understandings of human rights as they are expressed in literature in the broad sense of a personal narratives.  It considers indigenous concepts of fairness and justice in proverbs, legends, myths, poems, tales, and novels.  (2 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus

Human Rights and Culture

Topics for consideration include: the paradigm of universal human rights and its consistency with the reality of diverse cultures; the problems and opportunities of "global culture;" and the relationship between the "right to culture" and other rights.  (2 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus

Human Rights and the Media

The course investigates the politics of "manufacturing consent" about the legitimacy of conflict and trauma during times of war, and it provokes questions about the validity of the ways in which the media creates popular memories, and their relationship to human rights.   (2 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus

Islam and Human Rights

Given the increasing debate surrounding the situation of human rights in Islam, this course, examines the profound tension between the competing paradigms of universal human rights and cultural, religious relativism and Islam.  (2 credits)

This elective is next offered in the Spring 2013 semester.

Sample Course Syllabus

Migration and Human Rights

The course explores the complex relationships between nationality, citizenship, migration, and human rights.  Particularly, it will ask how mobility across national borders challenges the state form and the human rights of both citizens and international migrants.  (4 credits)

This course is next offered in the Fall 2012 semester.

Sample Course Syllabus

Philosophy of Human Rights

This course critically analyzes:  How do human rights differ from other kinds of rights?  Are individuals alone capable of having human rights, or can groups such as nations have them?  Are we justified in believing in human rights?  (2 credits)

This course is next offered in the Fall 2012 semester.

Sample Course Syllabus

Politics and Human Rights

The course looks at: the origins of rights-talk in political discourse; what rights involve; and how social movements have invoked rights to advance their cause as well as criticized rights as irrelevant to their cause.  (4 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus

Psychosocial Perspectives on Human Rights and Social Justice

The intersection of the psychological and the social provides an important juncture in which to consider the human dimensions of human rights.  This course explores the meaning and practice of "rights" from the perspectives of psychology, social work, and critical (post)colonial studies.  (2 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus

State Sovereignty and Human Rights

Looking at the relationship between human rights and state sovereignty, the course considers the role played by various actors in human rights - states, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and multinational corporations.  (4 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus

Theatre and Human Rights

This course will explore the significant role applied drama and theatre has played, and continues to play in the field of human rights education, development, and cultural discourse across the African continent, with specific reference to the SADC region. The course will be taught as both a theoretical and an experiential course.  (4 credits)

This elective is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Sample Course Syllabus