​​Spring 2016

Summer 2017

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This course looks at the history, theories, and central institutions of the human rights regime to understand key issues such as universality, the right to life, free speech, humanitarian intervention, war, genocide, human rights activism, globalization, and states of emergency.

In addition, we will discuss how human rights norms change and analyze some of the challenges of contemporary human rights advocacy.

 

 While academic analysis of human rights has a long history in other disciplines (law, philosophy, political science, anthropology), only recently have sociologists approached the topic. Thus, there is relatively less sociological writing and research. In this course we will examine a diversity of writings on human rights – but from a sociological standpoint, allowing us the opportunity to apply sociological concepts and methods to a variety of contemporary human rights issues.