International Human Rights Upper-Level
Learning Community
Interested in studying International Human Rights?
This Fall 2009 upper-level Learning Community will feature:
- Coordinated instruction across courses
- Courses apply toward the International Human Rights certificate
- Opportunities to participate in specialized experiences
- Close interaction with LC faculty
Courses Included in this Learning Community will be:
15POL289 International Organization
Instructor: Howard Tolley, PhD, JD
This intermediate level undergraduate political science elective examines transnational responses to global problems of a) security, b) development and c) human rights. The class will consider the evolution of intergovernmental institutions through the U.N. reform proposals debated at the September 2005 60th Anniversary Summit with a special focus on the UN Human Rights Council and nongovernmental organizations such as Amnesty International. Selected students will represent Iraq at the Nov. 21-24 American Model U.N. in Chicago on four committees of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the World Food Program. The instructor will waive the prerequisite course in International Relations, 15-POL-180 for upper division students with a good academic record.
15HIST309 Human Rights and US Foreign Relations II
Instructor: Stephen Porter, PhD
This course explores the intersections between human rights and U.S. foreign relations, broadly construed, focusing primarily on developments since World War I. Today the phrase “human rights” is regularly invoked in American public discourse, and in fact, nearly everywhere across the globe. We hear of it in the mass media, at protest rallies, in the halls of government, at places of worship, at the United Nations, in labor union meetings, and within war zones and refugee centers. It is a remarkably capacious concept, employed by people and groups of all political and cultural stripes seeking a dizzying array of goals. This course unearths the foundations that were laid for these phenomena in the 20th century. Although transnational in scope, the course pays particular attention to the very important roles that the people, legal traditions, cultures, and institutions of the United States have played in the recent development of international human rights. We will examine how various groups of government diplomats, minority communities, legal scholars, philanthropic leaders, and other Americans helped not only to put the issue of human rights on the table, but imbued it significantly with “American” characteristics, for better or worse. We will investigate how U.S. influence over the development of international human rights helped certain human rights traditions to become enshrined in international law and diplomacy at key moments but not others. Relatedly, we will ask why the U.S. and certain other parts of the world were able to get their vision of human rights recognized as a “universal” norm but not others. Finally, we will ask what difference all of this has made for the victims of human rights abuses, the contemporary state of international human rights law and politics, and the United States’ role in the world.
15ENGC321 Humanities and Human Rights
Instructor: Jana Braziel, PhD
Course examines the importance of human rights for the humanities, specifically analyzing the intersections of literature, film, and documentaries in representing rights and rights violations within 20th-21st century contexts. Course further addresses the intersections of humanities and human rights, as well as the role of literature and cultural forms in engaging human rights. Foregrounding the humanist foundations of the humanities, the course will also examine the theoretical turn toward post-humanism in contemporary literatures and cultural studies. Throughout the course, we will examine representations of the "human," and how human rights and human rights violations are depicted in literary, filmic, and other cultural texts.
For more information on this opportunity:
Contact one of the LC faculty listed above or Amanda Middleton.
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