Global Development and Human Rights

Course Description

This seminar introduces graduate students to the study of human rights by examining the political, social, and institutional forces that shape patterns of repression and accountability. Topics include the origins and measurement of human rights, the politics of repression and contentious politics, transitional justice mechanisms, the role of activists and advocacy networks, economic instruments, migration, and international legal compliance.

Learning Objectives

• Develop an understanding of major theoretical approaches to human rights, focusing on when and why states violate rights, and how societies attempt to prevent or contain abuses.
• Strengthen ability to critically assess scholarship: core claims, evidence, methodological strengths and weaknesses, and portability of findings across regions and debates.
• Improve ability to discuss, debate, and write about complex phenomena with clarity and precision.

Requirements

Component	Weight
Participation	25%
Response Papers (three, ~2 pages each)	25%
Paper Proposal	10%
Presentation	10%
Research Paper (~20 pages)	30%

Topics

1. Competing concepts and critiques of human rights
2. Measuring rights: data, indicators, and accountability
3. The politics of repression: why states violate rights
4. Policing, carcerality, and everyday repression
5. Civil wars, criminal wars, and the violence of armed conflict
6. Digital authoritarianism: technology, surveillance, and control
7. Transitional justice: truth, memory, and institutions
8. Transitional justice: prosecutions, deterrence, and violence
9. NGOs, advocacy networks, and human rights activism
10. Markets and rights: trade, sanctions, and political economy
11. Migration, refugees, and the politics of human rights
12. Courts, accountability, and the rule of law
13. Compliance, ratification, and HR prosecutions