Overview of Course

Focus: Global Human Rights

We study Human Rights in this course through the lens of social change. How has the understanding of what is considered “human” evolved? How and why did the notion of “rights” develop beyond the horrors of WWII - out which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights emerged? Can there be a common, global understanding of “rights”? Memoirs and scholarly texts are read with the goal of examining how human rights serve as the underpinnings for social change in different cultural, historic and religious contexts. Particular emphasis will be on the issue of how human rights are related to so-called development in various African countries. As we journey across the seas, the question this course poses: Where are we journeying to as individuals and as members of the human species?