Theorizing SocChng HR Perspect

Catalog description

This course has two principal objectives: (1) To understand and critique everyday assumptions about social change and human rights, and grasp their political implications. (2) To engage in the practice of theorizing social change not merely as an academic endeavor, but as an always-ongoing activity of making sense of and enabling action upon the present. To meet these objectives, we will read classical and contemporary theorizations of capitalism, modernity, and socio-economic development, and connect them to human rights theory and practice (including the material discussed in MSHR 500 and MSHR 501). In addition, one section of the course will include readings tailored to students’ needs for their capstone project. These texts and class discussions will help them develop a theoretical framework they will use for the research proposal developed in MSHR 504 (Integrative Community-Based Research I), which they will also take in their first semester. In this course, we will ask broad questions such as: How does the expansion of capitalism intersect with human rights? What are the possible connections between the expansion and possible shrinking of state bureaucracies and human rights? This course feeds directly into the proposal for the capstone project, which students develop in the same semester because it is designed to help them with the theory section of the proposal. In addition, this course can be seen as providing a broader context for MSHR 500 and MSHR 501 (Human Rights Theory and Practice I and II), and the texts and assignments are coordinated with the instructors who teach these two classes on an ongoing basis to ensure a coherent learning experience for each cohort. Offered: fall.