HMRT 20100. Human Rights I: Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. 100 Units.

Human rights are claims of justice that hold merely in virtue of our shared humanity. In this course we will explore philosophical theories of this elementary and crucial form of justice. Among topics to be considered are the role that dignity and humanity play in grounding such rights, their relation to political and economic institutions, and the distinction between duties of justice and claims of charity or humanitarian aid. Finally we will consider the application of such theories to concrete, problematic and pressing problems, such as global poverty, torture and genocide.

Instructor(s): B. Laurence     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 30100,PHIL 21700,PHIL 31600,HIST 29301,HIST 39301,INRE 31600,LAWS 41200,MAPH 40000,LLSO 25100

HMRT 20200. Human Rights II: History and Theory. 100 Units.

This course is concerned with the theory and the historical evolution of the modern human rights regime. It discusses the emergence of a modern “human rights” culture as a product of the formation and expansion of the system of nation-states and the concurrent rise of value-driven social mobilizations. It proceeds to discuss human rights in two prevailing modalities. First, it explores rights as protection of the body and personhood and the modern, Western notion of individualism. Second, it inquires into rights as they affect groups (e.g., ethnicities and, potentially, transnational corporations) or states.

Instructor(s): J. Sparrow     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 30200,CRES 29302,HIST 29302,HIST 39302,INRE 31700,JWSC 26602,LAWS 41301,LLSO 27100

HMRT 20300. Human Rights III: Contemporary Issues in Human Rights. 100 Units.

For U.S. students, the study of international human rights is becoming increasingly important, as interest grows regarding questions of justice around the globe. This interdisciplinary course presents a practitioner’s overview of several major contemporary human rights problems as a means to explore the utility of human rights norms and mechanisms, as well as the advocacy roles of civil society organizations, legal and medical professionals, traditional and new media, and social movements. The course may be co-taught by faculty from the Pritzker School of Medicine. Topics may include the prohibition against torture, problems of universalism versus cultural relativism, and the human right to health.

Instructor(s): S. Gzesh     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 30300,HIST 29303,HIST 39303,INRE 31800,LAWS 78201,LLSO 27200

HMRT 20010. African Women in Chicago. 100 Units.

Since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act altered previous restrictions on immigration to the United States, African immigration has increased fourfold, constituting what scholars refer to as "the new African immigration." By 2000, Chicagoland's African population constituted 21,828 in the city and 35,000 in Cook County. Initially, the vast majority of immigrants were men, but by the 1980s, nearly fifty percent of African immigrants were women, However, there has been relatively no research and we know little about the experiences of African women immigrants.  This colloquium explores the question "how does gender matter in a transnational context?" by analyzing African women and their varied modes of immigration and documenting the experiences of African women who migrated to Chicagoland over the course of the twentieth century. We will explore this question not only through intensive course readings and discussions, but also through fieldwork and collecting oral histories that document African women's life histories. This course will work partnership with the United Africa Organization that has launched the Africans in Chicago Oral History Project. The final class assignment will be an original research paper on the themes of gender, immigration, and human rights based on the oral histories collected.

Instructor(s): R. Jean-Baptiste     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Upper-level Ugrad; Intense readng required
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 20010,HIST 30010,HMRT 30010

HMRT 20116. Global-Local Politics. 100 Units.

Globalizing and local forces are generating a new politics in the United States and around the world. This course explores this new politics by mapping its emerging elements: the rise of social issues, ethno-religious and regional attachments, environmentalism, gender and life-style identity issues, new social movements, transformed political parties and organized groups, and new efforts to mobilize individual citizens.

Instructor(s): T. Clark     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 20116,HMRT 30116,PBPL 27900,SOCI 30116

HMRT 21390. Philosophy of Poverty. 100 Units.

 Global poverty is a human tragedy on a massive scale, and it poses one of the most daunting challenges to achieving a just global order.  In recent decades, a significant number of philosophers have addressed this issue in new and profoundly important ways, overcoming the disciplinary limitations of narrowly economic or public policy oriented approaches.  Recent theories of justice have provided both crucial conceptual clarifications of the very notion of ‘poverty’—including new measures that are more informed by the voices of the global poor and better able to cover the full impact of poverty on human capabilities and welfare—and vital new theoretical frameworks for considering freedom from poverty as a basic human right and/or a demand of justice, both nationally and internationally.  Moreover, these philosophers have pointed to concrete, practical steps, at both the level of institutional design and the level of individual ethical/political action, for effectively combating poverty and moving the world closer to justice.   The readings covered in this course, from such philosophers as Peter Singer, Thomas Pogge, David Graeber, and Martha Nussbaum, will reveal, not only the injustice of global poverty, but also what is to be done about it.

Instructor(s): B. Schultz     Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21390,PBPL 21390,PLSC 21390

HMRT 21400. Health and Human Rights. 100 Units.

This course attempts to define health and health care in the context of human rights theory and practice. Does a “right to health” include a “right to health care?” We delineate health care financing in the United States and compare these systems with those of other nations. We explore specific issues of health and medical practice as they interface in areas of global conflict: torture, landmines, and poverty. Readings and discussions explore social determinants of health: housing, educational institutions, employment, and the fraying of social safety nets. We study vulnerable populations: foster children, refugees, and the mentally ill.  Lastly, does a right to health include a right to pharmaceuticals? What does the big business of drug research and marketing mean for our own country and the world?

Instructor(s): R. Sherer, E. Lyon     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): MEDC 60405

HMRT 21901. Rights of the Living/Rites for the Dead: Forensic Anthropology and Human Rights Investigations. 100 Units.

Over the last decade, novels and television shows such as “CSI” and “Bones” have helped to usher in a “forensic anthropology craze” in American popular culture, and the scientist-detective has become a familiar hero. Yet, since the wars in Guatemala, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, the discipline of forensic anthropology has undergone an effective (and affective) transformation. This transformation is partially due to the fact that forensic anthropologists have been called on to practice in new contexts, interact with different cultures, and testify in international courts seeking justice for victims of genocide and crimes against humanity. In this discussion-based course, we will examine the foundational relationship between science and justice in forensic anthropology, the “need” to identify victims, and the dual goals of returning human remains to families and seeking justice in international court. How have different cultural contexts and communities dealt with and/or challenged the goals of forensic anthropology? How has the role of the forensic anthropologist changed? What are the goals and concerns of local communities, international teams of forensic anthropologists or NGOs, and state institutions? What role have the missing and human remains played in articulating human rights within new political regimes? We will begin our discussion with the familiar case of 9/11 and the issues and debates that have arisen around identifying and memorializing human remains from mass fatalities within the U.S. The first part of the course will provide a context for understanding these debates, as we examine the history and techniques of forensic anthropology and its relation to the development of international courts and human rights, issues surrounding the excavation and identification of human remains, the interactions between forensic anthropologists and local communities, memory and mourning, and ethical debates surrounding human remains. In the second part of the course, we will examine case studies outside of the U.S., paying close attention to the tensions and debates that have emerged in each context and using these case studies to reflect on the questions above.

Instructor(s): M. Marshall     Terms Offered: Winter

HMRT 21902. Human Rights Activism in Recent Latin American History. 100 Units.

The global history of the twentieth century was marked by the unprecedented surge of human rights as a powerful motivating framework for both state and non-state actors in local, national, and international politics. Starting in the 1940s and accelerating dramatically after the 1970s, a host of transformative norms, advocacy organizations, and juridical bodies sprouted up dedicated to the cause of human rights. Perhaps no single region of the world played a more pivotal role in the turn to human rights than Latin America, which was both the target of human rights advocacy and the birthing ground for a series of monumental developments for both regional and transnational human rights politics. This course aims to unpack the place of Latin America in the unexpected yet revolutionary ascendance of human rights in the twentieth century. In the first part of the quarter, we will look at the origins of human rights concepts in international politics from the 1940s and examine the particular place of Latin America in these developments. The lion’s share of the class will center on events since the 1970s, focusing primarily on the advent of human rights activism to oppose military dictatorships in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina. The final third of the course will analyze how societies have reckoned with their human rights pasts through the lens of “(post-)transitional justice.” We will consider the development of truth and reconciliation commissions; national, regional, and international trials of justice; and continued battles in the public sphere over the memory of past human rights abuses.

Instructor(s): P. Kelly     Terms Offered: Spring

HMRT 21903. Women, Work, and Political Representation at the Margins: Perspectives from the Global North and South. 100 Units.

The course first gives an overview of classical perspectives on economic theory, feminist theory, and intersectional approaches to what is commonly understood as female informal labor but broadened to include what I call “female labor at the margins.” The course will include case studies from the Global North (United States and Europe) and the Global South (Latin America, Asia, and Africa). The topics on gender and labor at the margins will include: care labor, paid household domestic work, street vending, and various forms of sex work. We will complete the course with a discussion of political representation, rights, and legal demands. Some broad questions that we will seek to address include: What is work/labor? What is work’s relationship to gender? Is there such a thing as “women’s work”? Is certain work considered to be more suitable for some groups than others? Does work have a relationship to other identities? What kinds of political rights do female laborers at the margins have? Should these laborers be afforded protections? How should they look and how might these protections be implemented?

Instructor(s): J. Harrington     Terms Offered: Spring

HMRT 22201. Philosophies of Environmentalism and Sustainability. 100 Units.

  What does “going green” really mean? What is “sustainability?” How do different fundamental ethical and political perspectives yield different approaches to and understandings of “environmentalism,” “conservation,” “stewardship,” and “sustainable development”? This course uses a combination of classic environmentalist texts (e.g., Thoreau, Leopold, Carson) and contemporary works to clarify and address the most hotly contested and urgent philosophical issues dividing the global environmental movement today. Various field trips and guest speakers help us philosophize about the fate of the earth by connecting the local and the global.

Instructor(s): B. Schultz     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 22209

HMRT 22906. Thinking Total War. 100 Units.

This course focuses on World War II, although the discussion on total war will radiate out backwards and forwards in time.  The theme is what military theorists in the nineteenth century had called guerre a outrance, war to the extreme  We want to find out and discuss how soldiers, politicians, academics, and everyday people saw and discussed such themes as comprehensive social and economic mobilization, war against civilians, and the ideological as well as emotional dimensions of war making.  We will also be interested to se how and why nations (and militaries) set limits to an all-out escalation and where they thought military necessity ended and war crimes and genocide began.  Needless to say that, although Micheal Geyer is specialist in German and James Sparrow a specialist in US history, this kind of exploration will have to take into account the eastern European and Russian as well as the East Asian experience.  If time permits, we will also look at colonial and national liberation wars.  Caution: This course requires some commitment to extensive reading and active participation.

Instructor(s): M. Geyer & J. Sparrow     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 22906,HIST 32906,HMRT 32906

HMRT 24701. Human Rights: Alien and Citizen. 100 Units.

This course addresses how international human rights doctrines, conventions, and mechanisms can be used to understand the situation of the “alien” (or foreigner) who has left his or her country of origin to work, seek safe haven, or simply reside in another country. If human rights are universal, human rights are not lost merely by crossing a border. We use an interdisciplinary approach to study concepts of citizenship and statelessness, as well as the human rights of refugees and migratory workers.

Instructor(s): S. Gzesh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 25303,LAWS 62401

HMRT 25101. Nonfiction Film: Representations and Performance. 100 Units.

This course attempts to define nonfiction cinema by looking at the history of its major modes (e.g., documentary, essay, ethnographic, agitprop film), as well as personal/autobiographical and experimental works that are less easily classifiable. We explore some of the theoretical discourses that surround this most philosophical of film genres (e.g., ethics and politics of representation; shifting lines between fact and fiction, truth and reality). The relationship between the documentary and the state is examined in light of the genre's tendency to inform and instruct. We consider the tensions of filmmaking and the performative aspects in front of the lens, as well as the performance of the camera itself. Finally, we look at the ways in which distribution and television effect the production and content of nonfiction film.

Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 28200,ARTV 25100,ARTV 35100,CMST 38200,HMRT 35101

HMRT 25106. Documentary Production I. 100 Units.

This class is intended to develop skills in documentary production so that students may apply for Documentary Production II. Documentary Production I focuses on the making of independent documentary video.  Examples of various styles of documentary will be screened and discussed.  Issues embedded in the documentary genre, such as the ethics and politics of representation and the shifting lines between fact and fiction will be explored.  Pre-production methodologies, production, and post-production techniques will be taught.  Students will be expected to develop an idea for a documentary video, crews will be formed, and each crew will produce a five-minute documentary.  Students will also be expected to purchase an external hard drive.

Instructor(s): J. Hoffman     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Prior or concurrent enrollment in CMST 10100 recommended
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23930,ARTV 33930,CMST 23930,CMST 33930,HMRT 35106

HMRT 25107. Documentary Production II. 100 Units.

This course focuses on the shaping and crafting of a nonfiction video. Students are expected to write a treatment detailing their project. Production techniques focus on the handheld camera versus tripod, interviewing and microphone placement, and lighting for the interview. Postproduction covers editing techniques and distribution strategies. Students then screen final projects in a public space.

Instructor(s): J. Hoffman     Terms Offered: Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930 or ARTV 23930.
Note(s): This course meets for two quarters.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23931,CMST 23931

HMRT 25210. Anthropology of Disability. 100 Units.

This seminar undertakes to explore "disability" from an anthropological perspective that recognizes it as a socially constructed concept with implications for our understanding of fundamental issues about culture, society, and individual differences. We explore a wide range of theoretical, legal, ethical, and policy issues as they relate to the experiences of persons with disabilities, their families, and advocates. The final project is a presentation on the fieldwork.

Instructor(s): M. Fred     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing
Equivalent Course(s): MAPS 36900,ANTH 20405,ANTH 30405,CHDV 30405,HMRT 35210,SOSC 36900

HMRT 26500. Human Rights in Russia and Eurasia. 100 Units.

This course focuses on the political economy of human rights in Russia and Eurasia. We will study how international norms have been “imported” by post-Soviet states. How have regional politics and cultures shaped how rights norms are understood and how they are protected in practice? Why do many post-Soviet countries fail to protect the rights of their citizens? Using knowledge of the history, political culture, and social practices of the region, we will work to identify those rights issues with the most potential for positive change and those more likely to remain enduring problems.

Instructor(s): A. Janco     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 29312,HIST 39313,SLAV 26500,SLAV 36500

HMRT 26600. Climate Change and Displacement. 100 Units.

This course will focus on recent debates regarding climate change and forced migration. Will global warming produce millions of "climate refugees"? If so, what populations are most vulnerable to rising sea levels, drought, and other changes associated with global warming? Who is responsible for these migrants and how can we distinguish environmental refugees from other categories of displaced persons? We will outline this emerging field of research with an eye to how different disciplines have approached these problems to identify common issues and to chart future directions of research.

Instructor(s): A. Janco     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 36600

HMRT 26700. Civilians and War. 100 Units.

In this course, we will study the history of war and forced migration. We will focus on how particular historical crises have led to the development of human rights protections for people displaced by war. What were these crises and how have they shaped the way we define the rights and status of refugees? How have these conventions been adapted to reflect the challenges of the World Wars, the Cold War, guerrilla warfare, and insurgency? We will study both developments in warfare and strategies for protecting civilians during war.

Instructor(s): A. Janco     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 36700,HIST 29511,HIST 39511

HMRT 28602. Health Care and the Limits of State Action. 100 Units.

In a time of great human mobility and weakening state frontiers, epidemic disease is able to travel fast and far, mutate in response to treatment, and defy the institutions invented to keep it under control: quarantine, the cordon sanitaire, immunization, and the management of populations. Public health services in many countries find themselves at a loss in dealing with these outbreaks of disease, a deficiency to which NGOs emerge as a response (an imperfect one to be sure). Through a series of readings in anthropology, sociology, ethics, medicine, and political science, we will attempt to reach an understanding of this crisis of both epidemiological technique and state legitimacy, and to sketch out options.

Instructor(s): E. Lyon, H. Saussy     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing
Note(s): This course does not meet the requirements for the Biological Sciences major.
Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 29323,BPRO 28600,CMLT 28900

HMRT 29001. The Practice of Human Rights. 100 Units.

The seminar uses an interdisciplinary approach to give students a variety of conceptual frameworks to integrate their field experience into their academic program. Course material focuses on two major aspects of the internship experience: analysis of the work of “social change” organizations and an evaluation of the student’s personal experience. The first half of this course is dedicated to readings and discussion. Students then give presentations that are subject to group critique and discussion.

Instructor(s): S. Gzesh     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Human Rights Program internship or equivalent experience in a rights-focused advocacy organization and consent of instructor.

HMRT 29630. History Colloquium: American Twilight the Late 1940s. 100 Units.

This course explores the simultaneous emergence of human rights politics and its nemesis, "realism," in the United States around the second half of the 1940s.  Virtually all scholars treat these two political traditions as historical matter and anti-matter- that is, when they acknowledge the other camp at all.  You will search in vain for index entries to"human rights" in any of the classic works on the diplomatic history or international relations of this period.  Likewise, even the best work on the human rights history of these foundational year largely ignores or brackets realpolitik.  Despite this mutual avoidance by academics (which dates to these same year), the transitional period 1945-1950 saw the institutionalization of both kinds of politics in the UN and NATO, the UDHR and the Truman Doctrine, refugee relief and the Marshall Plan.

Instructor(s): J. Sparrow     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Priority Registration for 3rd year History Majors