Undergraduate Courses

HMR 134 - Human Rights
Lauren Eastland

HMR 138 - Human Rights, Gender, & Sexuality
 

HMR 162Y - The History of Human Rights in Europe
Adam Zientek

HMR 190 - Seminar
Yael Teff-Seker

Course Description: Access to natural resources is vital for communities striving to survive and thrive, as it is crucial for their environmental, economic, and social sustainability and resilience. Social, ethnic, political, or religious minorities often suffer disproportionately from a lack of access to these resources or from over-exposure to environmental hazards, which in turn can cause humanitarian crises. Environmental resources, as well as hazards, are often allocated unequally, inequitably, and unjustly, predominantly due to political struggles, class and gender oppression, and social and political discrimination against minorities and individuals who are too weak to fight these injustices.   

The course provides an opportunity to discuss the ethical and theoretical questions in past and current scholarly debate, as well as religious, philosophical, and cultural perceptions of environmental resources, justice, and ethics. Case studies from the Middle East as well as other areas of the world, will be presented so as to demonstrate and analyze the relevant theories and models, bringing written theory to life in real-world, current-day, contexts. Students will choose their own case studies, which they will follow, for which they will implement insights from lectures, class readings, videos, and class discussions and exercises.  

 

 

Graduate Courses

 
Spring Quarter 2023

HIS 201W- Truth Commissions-Charles Walker, Wednesdays 3:00-6:00
approved toward Human Rights Designated Emphasis

This course examines truth commissions across the globe. We will review why/how they were created and the implications for the concepts of "truth" and "justice"; their impact and limitations; and the current questioning of their relevance in the twenty-first century. All of these questions build from and contribute to essential debates surrounding human rights, theory and practice. We will cover truth commissions in South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Peru, El Salvador, and Mexico (for which we will count on a guest Zoom dialogue with one member of the current truth commission). No background in Latin American history is necessary.