Global Human Rights in Cultural Production

Catalog description

This course will introduce students to the concept of Human Rights, familiarize students with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and examine case studies of Human Rights problems from around the world. In the first half of this course, students will learn about the development of the concept of human rights through an examination of its theoretical foundations, considering the tension between universality and relativity posed by the concept of universal human rights, and problematizing what this "universality" means for societies that perhaps have other, more pressing needs/priorities not included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the second half of this course, students will focus on examining a variety of human rights cases as represented in multiple cultural mediums (including films, a poem, a novel, a diary, and documentaries) and practice analyzing these cases to pinpoint the various stakeholders and their interests in the issue at hand. In class, students will learn tactical mapping and the case study method, which will be brought into class discussions throughout the second half of the course as they consider each human rights case study. Lastly, students will practice imagining themselves within these situations and think critically about the different choices of action they would have as an actor in the issue at hand. Students will practice ethical reasoning in examining how best to act as they imagine themselves navigating the complex field of these human rights questions.