Human Rights on Camera

Catalog description

This course studies the interplay between cameras and human rights; how media technologies are used by activists and human rights workers to amplify grievances. Focus on cases studies where state violence was captured on camera: the Rodney King beating; the Abu Ghraib torture images; the Syrian revolution; and the Black Lives Matter movement. How are legal assessments impacted by visual aesthetics? How much faith do we have in the power of cameras to deliver justice? Readings in foundational theoretical texts about media, technology, and visuality. Open only to students in the Focus Program.