Course Description
An examination of how, where, and under what specific conditions violations of human rights occur. Students will review local and global mechanisms for addressing human rights violations, and evaluate how international law, national policies, and local practices are mutually constituted. Contemporary theoretical debates regarding violence and power, memory and history, and the dilemmas of democratic transitions will be critiqued.
Athena Title
GEOG HUMAN RIGHTS
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course meets the following General Education Abilities by accomplishing the specific learning objectives listed below: Communicate effectively through writing Assimilate, analyze, and present in written forms, a body of information Adapt writing to circumstances and audience Interpret content of written materials on related topics from various disciplines Compose effective written materials for various academic and professional contexts Produce writing that is stylistically appropriate and mature This course meets all of the above criteria. Students have at least six writing opportunities in the 16 week semester. Short writing assignments require the students to analyze specific bodies of information relating to human rights in theory and practice. Students write essays for different audiences and assignments: at times they are writing to each other; other assignments require prose aimed to the universal reader. Students are tested for writing skills during in class tests, and in assigned essays and research topics. Students in 3640 interpret content in other disciplines and arts. Writing assignments require the students to explore various voices and styles. Communicate effectively through speech Assimilate, analyze, and present in oral forms, a body of information Adapt communication to circumstances and audience Communicate in various modes and media, including the proper use of appropriate technology Produce communication that is stylistically appropriate and mature Communicate for academic and professional contexts GEOG 3640 promotes effective communication through speech in all of the above ways. Students give regular oral presentations, in which they must adapt communication to differing circumstances and audiences. Class discussions and individual interventions require students to articulate positions in reaction to readings and discussion questions. Students must think critically about power, violence, humanitarianism and violence, and be able to articulate their arguments. Moreover, students must analyze various positions; for example, after viewing a film clip of a segment of a war crimes trial, students must articulate the positions of the witnesses, the judges, the prosecutor and the defendant. Computer Literacy Use word processing software Use specialized computer software (such as, CAD, GIS) Use a spreadsheet application Use a database application Use presentation software Use the web Use E-mail and use OASIS Students in 3640 must interact with technology, especially computers and the internet. In 3640 students watch on-line video from war crimes trials, interact with websites to access data on human rights instruments, and learn about web-based research resources for country-specific human rights reports. Certain students develop these skills in conjunction with GIS techniques. Critical Thinking (Engage in complex thought, analysis, and reasoning) Consider and engage opposing points of view Communicate for academic and professional contexts Support a consistent purpose and point of view Assimilate, analyze, and present a body of information Analyze arguments Interpret inferences and develop subtleties of symbolic and indirect discourse Critical thinking is the core of the educational experience in the Geography of Human Rights. In the course, students critically examine the idea of human rights, as well as its dialectics with geography. Specifically, in this analysis, human rights are socially constructed, and therefore always under contestation. By analyzing human rights as an idea situated in particular spaces at particular times, the course uses geography to illuminate the uneven development of human rights. A geography of human rights reveals what counts as a human right, and a human rights violation, rather than reifying the already-existing, taken-for-granted, assumption of what human rights “are.” Appreciating the social constructed of human rights help illuminate the power-relations wrapped up in the concept of human rights; the failure to recognize human rights as social constructs disguises the intense power-relations that goes into who has the power to determine what counts as a human right. Central to the project of critical thinking in 3640 is the dialectical relationship between geographies and human rights. In this approach, geography is more than just a ‘backdrop’ to events of human society. Rather, the transformations of places and spaces influence the activities of society, as social movements and organizations transform places and spaces. In studying the social construction of human rights, students gain an understanding of the complex politics that determines what ‘counts’ as a right as well as who enjoys the protection of such rights. GEOG 3640 engages moral reasoning in every fashion. This course examines the problems, promises and paradoxes of the development of human rights. We investigate how, where, and under what specific conditions massive violations of human rights occur. We examine these issues by studying specific cases: apartheid in South Africa, the phenomena of 'disappearances' and state-sponsored terror in Latin America, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, and violence in Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan and the DRC. As geographers, we study the local, national and global aspects of the violation of human rights and the responses to such crisis. We also address contemporary theoretical debates regarding violence and power, memory and history, trauma and testimony, and the dilemmas of recovering in societies that have experienced mass atrocity. Our focus is the pervasive problem of impunity. The aim of the course is to educate class members as to the particular experiences of the cases we address, while theorizing violence and power.
Topical Outline
Introduction Human Rights and Wrongs Part One: A Critical History of Human Rights Laws of War, Crimes of War The Post World War Two and the Human Rights 'Revolution' Disappearances and Deniability, Torture and Terror Part Two: Case Studies in Mass Atrocity Guatemala, 1960-1996 South Africa, 1948-1994 Part Three: International Tribunals and the Pursuit of Justice The International Criminal Tribunal for the ex-Yugoslavia Corpus Delecti: The Body of Evidence A Permanent International Criminal Court Transnational Justice: El Caso Pinochet Universal Jurisdiction? Part Four: Critical Approaches to Truth and Justice Trauma (and Testimony) Memory (and History) Amnesty (and Forgetting) The Humanitarian 'Hawks' and the Polemics of Helping "How to Tell a True War Story" Conclusion: The Place of Justice. The Space of Justice.