GLOS 3900 is also offered in Spring 2024
GLOS 3900 is also offered in Fall 2023
GLOS 3900 is also offered in Spring 2023
GLOS 3900 is also offered in Fall 2022
GLOS 3900 is also offered in Spring 2022
Spring 2024 | GLOS 3900 Section 001: Topics in Global Studies -- Human Rights Beyond States (67715)
- Instructor(s)
- Class Component:
- Lecture
- Credits:
- 3 Credits
- Repeat Credit Limit:
- 15 Credits
- Grading Basis:
- A-F only
- Instructor Consent:
- No Special Consent Required
- Instruction Mode:
- In Person
- Class Attributes:
Topics Course
- Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
UMTC, East Bank
Blegen Hall 330
- Enrollment Status:
Open (12 of 25 seats filled)
- Also Offered:
- Course Catalog Description:
- Topics vary each semester. See Class Schedule.
- Class Notes:
- What would the struggle for human rights look like once we move beyond nation-states considered as either the paternal protectorate or sole violator of individual rights and freedoms? What political, ethical, and legal force does the humanitarian field occupied by transnational agencies, grassroots organizations, and political activists hold in both defining rights and addressing violations? What kind of legal infrastructures, regimes of care, and institutions of justice available for those exposed to grave human rights violations? This course focuses on the rights of stateless people in the contemporary global world afflicted by civil wars, militarized humanitarian interventions, wars on terror, and late capitalism. Students will examine entanglements of the human rights discourse with the idea of natural law espoused by international institutions and citizenship rights safeguarded by nation-states. Drawing on readings from anthropology, social theory, and political science, we will explore alternative trajectories that the human rights struggle follows as it is employed and challenged by, for example, humanitarian agencies in Africa, transitional justice movements in Latin America, and undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers in Europe. By troubling state-centered analysis of human rights, this course invites students to examine multifaceted power structures, complex ethical dilemmas, and radical politics that enfold the contemporary human rights discourse.
- Class Description:
- What would the discourse of human rights look like if we move beyond considering nation-states as either paternal protectorates or the sole violators of individual rights and freedoms? What political, ethical, and legal forces do the humanitarian field occupied by transnational agencies, grassroots organizations, and radical social movements hold in both defining rights and addressing violations? How can conventional human rights institutions hold multinational corporations, paramilitary organizations, or rebel groups accountable for human rights violations?
This course focuses on the place of non-state actors in the contemporary world, afflicted as it is by humanitarian crises precipitated by the wars on terror, environmental disasters, authoritarian regimes, and the late capitalist economy. Students will examine the entanglements of human rights discourse with the idea of natural law espoused by international institutions and citizenship rights safeguarded by nation-states. Drawing on readings from anthropology, social theory, international politics, law, as well as feminist and critical race studies, we will explore alternative trajectories that the discourse of human rights follows as it is employed and challenged by, for example, humanitarian agencies in Africa, liberation movements in the Middle East, or paramilitaries in Latin America. By troubling state-centered analyses of human rights, this course invites students to examine multifaceted power structures, complex ethical dilemmas, and radical politics that are enfolded within the contemporary discourse of human rights.
- Grading:
- 15% Participation
15% Response Papers
30% Midterm
40% Final
- Exam Format:
- Essay
- Class Format:
- Lecture
- Textbooks:
- https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/67715/1243
- Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
- 7 November 2018
ClassInfo Links - Spring 2024 Global Studies Classes