GEOG 378: Global Human Rights (Crosslisted: HIST)

This course will explore the meanings of human rights in different historical contexts, as well as analyze ongoing contemporary conflicts over the universality of human rights. Our analytical lens will include political philosophers, nation-states and international organizations, but we will also pursue alternative visions and voices, exploring how human rights debates in the "West" were shaped by an uneasy tension with colonialism and slavery. The course explores the role of major governmental and non-governmental institutions in human rights activism, and analyzes emerging approaches to transnational geographies of justice. We will explore the ongoing contested boundaries of universal human rights protection, including gender and human rights; the collective rights of indigenous peoples; prisoners of war; and the rights of non-citizens within a global human rights regime still largely scripted by the dictates of national sovereignty.