Human Rights Studies

(College of Letters and Science)

Keith Watenpaugh, Ph.D., Program Director

Program Office. 213 Sproul Hall; 530-752-1219; http://human-rights.ucdavis.edu

Human Rights Studies is the newest interdisciplinary program at UC Davis and the first of its kind in the University of California system. Our new century has brought with it a host of complex, unprecedented, and daunting challenges to basic human rights; courage, creativity, and a commitment to sustained and innovative interdisciplinary collaboration are necessary to understand, address and solve these challenges. Human Rights Studies is a place for incubating, supporting, coordinating, and promoting faculty and student research, teaching, learning, service, and engagement across the campus on Human Rights and its attendant fields: humanitarianism, environmental justice, genocide, mass sexual and gender-based violence, refugee studies, memory studies, and post-conflict transitional justice. Undergraduate Human Rights students go on to join the Peace Corps, attend graduate school in the humanities and social sciences, and pursue professional programs and careers in public policy, law, education, nursing, and medicine.

(College of Letters and Science)

http://humanrightsminor.ucdavis.edu

The interdisciplinary minor in Human Rights gives students a chance to explore human rights as both a specific issue and within larger contexts through a wide variety of disciplines and courses.

Courses in the minor provide students with an opportunity to approach human rights as a practical, as well as an intellectual problem. The minor will be of special interest to students majoring in area studies and those planning to pursue careers in public service, law and international relations. Students will take courses in which human rights problems are the central focus of the course and other courses, which while not having human rights as their central theme, include elements that address the history, theory, practice, violation, promotion and protection of human rights, or in which students have the opportunity to conduct research projects relevant to the study of human rights.

Program Objectives

In addition to completing RST 090 or 134, students must take two additional Core Courses and two from the Elective Course list. Students must select courses from at least three different departments or programs to satisfy minor requirements.

Advising. Keith Watenpaugh, kwatenpaugh@ucdavis.edu.

Human Rights
Units: 20
RST 134
Human Rights (Discontinued)
4
Choose two core courses:
8
With prior permission of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Human Rights advisor, students may substitute one course from the list of electives as a core course.
 
HIS 142A
History of the Holocaust (Active)
4
RST 131
Genocide (Discontinued)
4
SOC 104
The Political Economy of International Migration (Active)
4
SPA 159
Special Topics in Latin American Literature and Culture (Active)
4
When taught as “Witnessing in Latin America: Trauma, Violence and Memory.”
Choose two electives:
8
AMS 156
Race, Culture and Society in the United States (Active)
4
ANT 126B
Women and Development (Active)
4
ANT 130A
Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Active)
4
ANT 131
Ecology and Politics (Active)
4
CHI 131
Chicanas in Politics and Public Policy (Active)
4
or
CHI 131S
Chicanas in Politics and Public Policy (Active)
4
CHI 150
The Chicana and Chicano Movement (Active)
4
ENL 107
Freedom of Expression (Active)
4
HIS 142A
History of the Holocaust (Active)
4
HIS 142B
The Memory of the Holocaust (Active)
4
HIS 172
American Environmental History (Active)
4
HIS 177A
History of Black People and American Race Relations, 1450-1860 (Active)
4
HIS 177B
History of Black People and American Race Relations, 1860-Present (Active)
4
HIS 183A
The Frontier Experience: Trans-Mississippi West (Active)
4
HIS 183B
The Frontier Experience: Trans-Mississippi West (Active)
4
HIS 189
California History (Active)
4
NAS 115
Native Americans in the Contemporary World (Active)
4
NAS 130B
Native American Ethno-Historical Development (Active)
4
NAS 130C
Native American Ethno-Historical Development (Active)
4
NAS 157
Native American Religion and Philosophy (Active)
4
RST 131
Genocide (Discontinued)
4
RST 167
Iraq (Active)
4
SOC 104
The Political Economy of International Migration (Active)
4
SOC 130
Race Relations (Active)
4
SOC 137
African American Society and Culture 1790 to 1990 (Active)
4
SOC 157
Social Conflict (Active)
4
SOC 160
Sociology of the Environment (Active)
4
SOC 171
Sociology of Violence and Inequality (Active)
4
SPA 159
Special Topics in Latin American Literature and Culture (Active)
4
When taught as “Witnessing in Latin America: Trauma, Violence and Memory.”
SPA 175
Topics in Latin American Cultural Studies (Active)
4
Only if topic is related to human rights. Prior approval from minor advisor is required.
WMS 102
Gender and Post Colonialism (Active)
4
WMS 140
Gender and Law (Active)
4
WMS 170
Queer Studies (Active)
4
WMS 182
Globalization, Gender and Culture (Active)
4
Total: 20
Courses in HMR:
HMR 001—Human Wrongs/Human Rights (4) Active
Lecture—3 hour(s); Discussion—1 hour(s). Introduction to Human Rights and the problems they seek to address. Using key episodes of inhumanity like slavery, genocide, and racism. Examines how international movements for social justice led to the emergence of the international Human Rights system. (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 120A—Art, Architecture, and Human Rights (4) Active
Lecture/Discussion—4 hour(s). Study of human rights as they relate to art, architecture, and cultural heritage. Examines museums, art collections, and cultural-heritage management, their relation to the cultural prerogatives of communities and indigenous groups, and protection of cultural heritage during war and conflict. (Same course as AHI 120A.) (Letter.) GE credit: AH, DD, SS, VL, WC, WE. Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 130—Special Topics in Human Rights (4) Active
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Prerequisite(s): HMR 134 or RST 134 recommended. Thematic study of human rights. Topics may include contemporary or historical issues in the promotion, protection, and violation of human rights; human rights and the arts, religion, literature are possible topical areas. May be repeated for credit when topic differs. (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 131—Genocide (4) Review all entries Historical
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper/Discussion—1 hour(s). Prerequisite(s): Upper division standing. Comparative and critical study of the modern phenomenon of genocide from religious, ethical and historical perspectives. (Same course as Religious Studies 131.) (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, VL, WC, WE. Effective: 2014 Spring Quarter.
HMR 131—Genocide (4) Review all entries Active
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper/Discussion—1 hour(s). Prerequisite(s): Upper division standing. Comparative and critical study of the modern phenomenon of genocide from religious, ethical and historical perspectives. (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, VL, WC, WE. Effective: 2018 Fall Quarter.
HMR 134—Human Rights (4) Review all entries Historical
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper/Discussion—1 hour(s). Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of the origins, evolution, denial and protection of Human Rights. No credit for students who have completed RST 090. (Same course as RST 134.) (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2014 Spring Quarter.
HMR 134—Human Rights (4) Review all entries Active
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper/Discussion—1 hour(s). Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of the origins, evolution, denial and protection of Human Rights. No credit for students who have completed RST 090. (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2019 Winter Quarter.
HMR 136—Human Rights in the Middle East (4) Active
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Study of the experience of Human Rights in the modern Middle East, with special attention to the Human Rights issues raised by events of Arab Spring; Palestine-Israel conflict; history of genocide, mass killing and totalitarianism in the region. (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 138—Human Rights, Gender, and Sexuality (4) Active
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Gender and sexuality in the context of human rights. Topics include women's participation in the public sphere, the right to change gender, the right for family privacy, and the right to marriage. (Letter.) GE credit: AH, WC, WE. Effective: 2018 Fall Quarter.
HMR 140A—Human Rights and the Popular Imagination (4) Active
Lecture—3 hour(s); Term Paper/Discussion—1 hour(s). Arts, music, literature, film and television in the rise of human rights movements and the protection, promotion and violation of human rights. Topics may include human rights and science fiction; human rights and the graphic novel; human rights and contemporary cinema; human rights and rock and roll (Letter.) GE credit: ACGH, AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2019 Winter Quarter.
HMR 140B—The Art & Politics of Memory in Latin America: Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation (4) Active
Lecture—3 hour(s); Term Paper/Discussion—1 hour(s). Critical analysis of the dictatorships and civil conflicts that took place in Cold War Latin America. Case studies focus on the violation of human rights as well as on the political and cultural battles for truth, justice, and reconciliation that take place in the aftermath of those violations. Emphasis on how memory is constructed, in what forms, by whom, and for what purposes. (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2019 Fall Quarter.
HMR 161—Human Rights in Latin America (4) Active
Lecture—3 hour(s); Term Paper. History of the origins, denial and protection of Human Rights in Latin America. Emphasis on dictatorships, political violence, social resistance, democracy, justice, accountability, truth commissions, memory. (Same course as HIS 161.) (Letter.) GE credit: AH, SS, VL, WC, WE. Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 162Y—The History of Human Rights in Europe (4) Active
Lecture—3 hour(s); Web Electronic Discussion—1 hour(s). History of the origins, development, and state of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) in Europe. Emphasis on Enlightenment-era and modern theories of the source, utility, and limits of human rights. (Same course as HIS 126Y.) (Letter.) GE credit: SS, WC. Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 190—Seminar (4) Active
Seminar—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Emphasis on current scholarly debate about the methods for analyzing and comparing diverse human rights issues with the intention of integrating disciplined study of the field. (Letter.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 198—Directed Group Study (1-4) Active
Variable. Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor. Group study on focused topics in human rights. May be repeated for credit. (P/NP grading only.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 199—Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates (1-5) Active
Variable—3-15 hour(s). Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor. Opportunity for advanced undergraduate students to work with a faculty member in a focused manner on a topic or topics of human rights. May be repeated for credit. (P/NP grading only.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 200A—History, Theory and Criticism of Human Rights (4) Active
Seminar—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor. Restricted to graduate students. Introduces the advanced study of Human Rights and the theoretical and practical elaboration of the international Human Rights system. Seminar will engage with criticism of Human Rights and develop research and teaching within disciplinary and interdisciplinary frameworks. (Same course as REL 231E.) (Letter.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 200B—Memory, Culture, and Human Rights (4) Active
Seminar—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor. Restricted to graduate students. Explores the multiple convergences among memory, culture, and human rights. Discusses diverse approaches to how societal actors in different historical, cultural, and national settings, construct meanings of past political violence, inter-group conflicts, and human rights struggles. (Same course as CST 210.) (Letter.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 298—Group Study (1-4) Active
Variable—1 hour(s). Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor. Restricted to graduate students. Group study on focused topics in human rights. Four-unit courses may serve as electives for the Designated Emphasis in Human Rights. May be repeated up to 16 Unit(s) when topic differs. (Letter.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 299—Individual Study (1-12) Active
Variable—1-12 hour(s). Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor. Restricted to graduate students. Individual study for the designated emphasis in human rights. May be repeated for credit. (S/U grading only.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
HMR 396—Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (1-4) Active
Variable—1-4 hour(s). Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor. Graduate standing. Restricted to graduate students. Teaching Assistant Training Practicum. May be repeated for credit. (S/U grading only.) Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.