SO424
Approaches to Human Rights
This information is for the 2024/25 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Mai Taha
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Human Rights. This course is available on the MSc in Gender, Peace and Security, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy and MSc in International Migration and Public Policy (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ and Sciences Po). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). Students who have this course as a core course are guaranteed a place. Other than for students for whom the course is a core course, places are allocated based on a written statement. As demand is typically high, this may mean that not all students who apply will be able to get a place on this course.
Course content
This is a multi-disciplinary course that provides students with a rigorous and focused engagement with different disciplinary perspectives on the subject of human rights including philosophy, sociology and international law. It provides students with contending interpretations of human rights as an idea and practice from the different standpoints that the disciplines present and investigates the particular knowledge claims and modes of reasoning that the respective disciplines engage. The course applies the insights of international law, philosophy and sociology to understand key human rights issues such as universality, international institutions, genocide, non-discrimination, economic and social rights and citizenship.
Teaching
This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online materials and seminars totalling a minimum of 40 hours across AT and WT, with 1 hour in ST.
Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in AT Week 6 and WT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.
Formative coursework
Active participation in the workshops is expected and students will be asked to make a presentation to their group.
Students will have an opportunity to submit a formative essay in the AT.
Indicative reading
No one book covers the entire syllabus and students are expected to read widely from more general texts on human rights, to more specific texts outlining the debates on human rights from a particular disciplinary perspective.
Philo