Course
Human Wrongs/Human Rights
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens
can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever
does." (Margaret Mead, anthropologist)
This course introduces the history and practice of human rights,
providing students with the historical and philosophical
background behind contemporary humanitarian and human rights
debates while examining how the human rights regime works in the
present.
Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship, the course asks what
human rights are, where they came from, which institutions and
legal frameworks have advanced them, and how they have been
critiqued. Students examine whether human rights discourse is a
Western imposition, whether its universal claims are attainable,
and how histories of imperialism, colonialism, racial, ethnic,
and gender discrimination shape the field.
By the end of the semester, students gain a working understanding
of how slavery, human trafficking, imperialism, colonialism, war,
genocide, and the climate crisis have influenced, or failed to
influence, human rights initiatives, along with the institutional,
political, legal, and ethical responses to those wrongs.
Syllabus:
Download syllabus (PDF)
Modern Middle East
Political and social history with emphasis on state formation, war, and transnational flows.
Course
The Problem of Genocide
The twentieth century has been dubbed by some historians and
politicians the "century of genocide." While colonial mass
killing in the Belgian Congo, the Holocaust, and the genocides in
Bosnia and Rwanda pushed the international community to define,
prohibit, and punish genocide and crimes against humanity,
large-scale atrocities continue into the present.
To understand the reasons behind genocidal moments, this course
examines modern genocides through a comparative lens in order to
identify patterns of violence and encourage critical thinking
about prevention. Major themes include modernity and genocide,
colonialism, denialism, gender, media, justice and
reconciliation, and prevention.
The course treats comparison with care. It does not seek to rank
suffering or turn atrocity into a competition of pain. Instead,
through primary sources, interdisciplinary scholarship,
literature, oral histories, court cases, film, and material
culture, students engage in critical comparative analysis while
preserving the historical specificity of different genocides.
Guiding questions include: How do genocides come about? What
motivates people to participate in or resist violence? How is
genocide remembered, forgotten, and taught? And how might it be
prevented?
Syllabus:
Download syllabus (PDF)